The absolute worst thing about the state of the world
July 9th, 2025 08:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conulyRight now I'm hovering over "popcorn" - new political parties? With added drama and infighting? LOL, okay, let's see how that works out for you!
(Look, I need a break from panic now and again, and I will take my fun where it appears.)
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various
July 7th, 2025 11:25 pmsinew posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
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All the children of the world
July 7th, 2025 10:56 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
slacktivist_feedElon Musk’s America Party is all about keeping him in control
July 8th, 2025 12:01 amdailykos_feedElon Musk is pretty cool with the fact that President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” gave a $1 trillion tax cut to gazillionaires like himself. What’s not great, according to Musk, is that Trump didn’t cut enough. So with the same unwarranted confidence he brings to all things, Musk has declared he is starting the “America Party.”
Like all his efforts, Musk sees the creation of a new major party as a piece of cake, something no one else has yet succeeded at because they don’t have his big brain. So of course this will work, just as well as it worked with the Boring Company. You know, where Musk promised a network of high-speed underground tunnels where you could zip along at stupid speeds, but what we really got was a 2.4-mile stretch in Las Vegas where you get to toodle along in a Tesla driven by someone else.
Or maybe it will work as well as the efforts to get to Mars, where Musk once promised crewed missions by 2024. Or perhaps it will turn out like his promises for full self-driving technology in Teslas, where we were supposed to be letting the Tesla computer entirely take over way back in 2016.
Per Musk, breaking the two-party system is “not hard tbh,” which are the words of a person who has paid no attention to American politics whatsoever until buying Trump the presidency. If Musk bothered to look around, he’d see that American politics has been notoriously resistant to third parties, particularly celebrity-driven parties like the one Musk is proposing.
Musk also displayed his profound lack of understanding when he declared that the new party was needed to “represent the 80% in the middle.” In reality, there are very few things that 80% of Americans approve of, and Musk’s wholesale destruction of the federal government is not one of them.
Except Musk isn’t actually going to try for widespread representation of those 80% at all. What he’s actually going to focus on are “just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts.” Why? “Given the razor-thin legislative margins, that would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people.
So, Musk will be handpicking seats to install representatives and senators by deploying his enormous resources, but that’s not about representing the people. Instead, it looks much more like Musk has simply decided to shift his locus of control from Trump to Congress, and will use those people he ushers into office to ensure he controls vote outcomes.
The market doesn’t seem too wild about Musk’s latest foray into politics, with Tesla shares taking a bath as of Monday. This continues the tremendous drop in value Tesla has suffered since Musk made himself the face of the brutal cuts the Department of Government Efficiency unleashed. It turns out people do not like buying cars from a Nazi-saluting goon who played a key role in the Trump administration’s dismantling of science, public health, safety, and more.
Unsurprisingly, Trump is not impressed with Musk’s efforts, initially saying that it was “ridiculous” to start a third party because “we have a tremendous success with the Republican Party” and “starting a third party just adds to the confusion.” After he stewed on it some more, he made a Truth Social post saying that Musk was going “off the rails” and was now a TRAIN WRECK. Perhaps Trump will renew his threats to Musk that he’ll have him deported.
It isn’t clear at this point if the America Party effort will get Musk’s full attention, as DOGE did, or if he will treat it like one of his products, where Musk’s spectacular pronouncements always collapse into a series of broken promises made by a congenitally arrogant and lazy man. Either way, Musk’s efforts aren’t meant to help anyone except Elon Musk.
Campaign ActionCartoon: Minion Mikey
July 7th, 2025 11:59 pmdailykos_feedA cartoon by Clay Bennett.
Related | House speaker eager to give up even more power to Trump
Campaign Action
'Cancún Cruz' spotted on another trip abroad amid deadly Texas flood
July 7th, 2025 11:30 pmdailykos_feedSen. Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, must have had flight miles expiring soon, otherwise it’s hard to explain the extreme inopportune timing of his luxe family vacation.
Cruz was spotted on a relaxing tour of the Greek Parthenon Saturday as his constituents continued to suffer from deadly flooding, which has claimed at least 95 lives as of Monday—including 27 young girls from a nearby summer camp.
Meanwhile, while on vacation in Athens, Cruz was allegedly approached by a woman who said, “20 kids dead in Texas and you take a vacation?”
“He sort of grunted and walked on. His wife shot me a dirty look. Then they continued on with their tour guide,” she told The Daily Beast.
Cruz and his family are no strangers to dipping out when weather takes a turn for the worse. When Texas was hit with a massive winter storm in 2021 that left many without power and water, Cruz fled to Cancún, Mexico.
As for his timeline in Europe, Cruz reportedly jetted across the pond the day after a state of emergency was declared in Texas on July 3, and he returned on July 6.
Of course, as soon as he hit the ground, Cruz was quick to hop on Fox News to pretend that nothing happened.
“In the face of disaster, Texans come together. This is every parent’s nightmare, but we will come through this,” he wrote on X alongside a clip of him on Fox.
And while Cruz may be back to work, another bigger issue is brewing in Texas: the nearly 600 layoffs to the National Weather Service that likely contributed to the flood’s death toll.
In May, former NWS directors penned a letter warning that these cuts would lead to deaths in the case of extreme weather. Now, Democrats are calling for an investigation into whether these job cuts are directly linked to the growing number of deaths in Texas.
Regardless of who’s to blame, Cruz has an ongoing habit of jetting off when the going gets tough—a habit that unfortunately comes with receipts.
Campaign ActionThe Recap: The Epstein files mystery continues, and GOP faces angry voters
July 7th, 2025 07:55 pmdailykos_feedA daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know.
Republicans face voter rage—and Democrats their first big test
Voters are souring on Republicans, but what happens next is up to the Democrats.
Parents of men illegally sent to El Salvador beg you not to look away
Immigrants who have been illegally deported are not just statistics, they’re human beings.
Talk about hardly working.
Trump threatens not to chicken out yet again over tariffs
With Trump, there’s always a chance of changing his mind.
Trump administration slaps high cost on federal workers' free speech
Yes, even federal workers have First Amendment rights.
MAGA world implodes after Trump cronies flip-flop on Epstein files
Will we ever really know if there’s a secret Epstein client list?
Click here to see more cartoons.
Campaign ActionMedia shrugs off unhinged Social Security email
July 7th, 2025 10:30 pmdailykos_feedOver the weekend, 71 million people—anyone who has ever created an account on the Social Security Administration’s website—got an unhinged partisan email lying about how President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill “eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries.” It also floridly praised Trump for reaffirming his “promise to protect Social Security” and says that the newly signed law “helps ensure that seniors can better enjoy the retirement they’ve earned.”
We know that’s a lie. We also know the media knows it’s a lie. But they seem, as always, not ready to meet the moment. Rather than reporting on how there has never been such a nakedly partisan email from the SSA, and how turning agency communications into partisan boasts filled with lies undermines democracy, they’re desperately trying to explain it away.
Axios said it was “unusual for the agency to blast an overtly political message to its massive email list, which includes retirees and those who've signed up at their website.”
“Unusual” implies that there is a usual course of action this slightly diverges from, but that it’s also not wholly outside of the bounds of appropriate government communication. In reality, it’s unheard of. It’s tiresome to do the “Imagine if President Joe Biden did this” thing, but honestly, imagine it. The media would lose their minds. It would be “But her emails” combined with “Joe Biden is senile” times 1,000.
It’s not that past presidents haven’t had agencies blast out press releases touting their achievements. Here’s one that Axios dug up from 2010, in its attempts to characterize the Trumpy announcement as similar to past presidential communications. In the old press release, the then-head of Social Security praised President Barack Obama’s “commitment to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government.”
That example doesn’t really help Axios, though. First, the Obama-era announcement was a press release, not something sent to 71 million people’s email inboxes indiscriminately. Second, the 2010 statement was not about the passage of a partisan tax law, but rather, it was about how SSA now had new datasets available for researchers. And finally, of course, that 2010 announcement was not based on a lie.
Quite simply, the Big Beautiful Bill has no language in it whatsoever about eliminating federal income taxes on Social Security. In reality, the bill does give seniors an extra tax deduction—but only for four years, because the benefits should never last longer than Trump, only the tax cuts. But that deduction phases out based on income, and doesn’t apply to any Social Security recipients under 65, even though people are eligible to begin drawing Social Security at 62.
Axios isn’t the only outlet that should come in for blame here. The New York Times said that the Social Security Administration had “circulated an imprecise email,” as if it were internal communications about a potluck and it accidentally said Peggy was bringing chips, but it’s actually Timmy. CNN characterized it as “stray[ing] from the agency’s typically apolitical nature.”
Trump is now circulating his supposed evidence for how it gives everyone the tax break his email promised. That evidence is a scant little piece from Trump’s own Council of Economic Advisers. It’s dated as “June 2025” and comes in at 4 pages, including the title page. Rigorous analysis, this is not. But of course, it’s already getting reported as accurate.
When it comes to Trump, the mainstream media is constantly engaged in this sort of sanewashing, trying to paint Trump as just a bit off-kilter, a little more inclined toward some unusual styles of communication.
They know as well as you do that the actions of the administration and the president are so out of pocket, so repulsive, so partisan that it should be on the front page of every paper in America. But since this is Donald Trump, not Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris or Joe Biden, the media is going to keep giving him cover.
Campaign ActionGuess which countries Trump is threatening with more tariffs now
July 7th, 2025 09:30 pmdailykos_feedOn Monday, in a pair of poorly written letters, President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 25% tariff on South Korea and Japan beginning on Aug. 1 if the companies within those countries do not "decide to build or manufacture product within the United States."
“We invite you to participate in the extraordinary Economy of the United States, the Number One Market in the World, by far,” Trump wrote in the letters, which were overloaded with commas and filled with nonsensical capitalizations.
South Korea has expressed interest in negotiation with Trump, but said that it’s unclear what Trump even wants out of an agreement, which makes the negotiations difficult.
“We’re doing our best, and the goal is to reach a genuinely mutually beneficial outcome, but at this stage, both sides still haven’t clearly defined what exactly they want,” South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung told the Singaporean outlet the Straits Times. “All I can say for now is that we’re doing our utmost.”
Trump’s letters come two days before the 90-day pause on his "Liberation Day" tariffs is set to expire, leaving Trump with several options: he can let the astronomical tariffs he placed on nearly every country on the planet go into effect, pausing the tariffs again, or some sort of middle ground where he puts a new and arbitrary tariff on imported goods if trade deals aren’t made in time. The letters to South Korea and Japan suggest he is going with the third option.
Economists say that imposing a 25% tariff on South Korea and Japan will be bad for the economy, as companies will merely pass down those taxes onto American consumers, spiking inflation to levels that could plunge the country into a recession. The United States imports billions of dollars worth of goods from South Korea and Japan, including machinery and mechanical appliances, transportation equipment, and chemicals, plastics, and rubber.
Trump, for his part, said when he paused the “Liberation Day” tariffs that he would make 90 trade deals in 90 days with countries.
But with two days to go before the deadline, not a single deal is fully signed. And the so-called "deals" Trump said are in the works with China, Vietnam and the United Kingdom are horrible for American consumers, as they will lead to increased tariffs on items imported to the United States from those countries that companies will almost certainly pass down to American consumers in the form of increased prices.
Related | Trump threatens not to chicken out yet again over tariffs
Of course, it's unclear if the new tariff threat against Japan and South Korea will ever even come to fruition. Trump has caved on nearly all of his tariff announcements, earning him the pejorative nickname TACO—which stands for Trump Always Chickens Out. Indeed, in the letters he sent to the two countries, he said, "These Tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your Country.”
Nevertheless, the stock market responded negatively to Trump's latest trade mishegas, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling more than 500 points.Trump and Texas point fingers as flood death toll rises
July 7th, 2025 08:00 pmdailykos_feedWhile the death count from the Texas floods continues to rise, with people still missing and more rain is expected to come, the Trump administration and Texas officials are busy playing the blame game.
More than 80 people have been confirmed dead and 41 are still missing—a catastrophic loss of life as a result of aggressive staffing cuts, Texas’ longtime dismissive attitude toward public safety, and extreme weather.
Much of the fight between the Trump administration and the state centers on whether the National Weather Service issued accurate and timely warnings about the flash flood that swept the Texas Hill Country early on July 4.
The NWS began providing early forecasts on July 1, and by the afternoon of July 3, it issued a flash flood watch—predicting up to 7 inches of rain. By that evening, the agency issued a “special weather discussion” explaining that flash flooding was likely and rainfall would exceed 3 inches per hour.
At 1:14 AM on July 4, the NWS issued a flash flood warning for Kerr County, tagged as “considerable,” which typically triggers alerts to be sent to mobile phones. And at 4:03 AM, the agency upgraded the warning to a flash flood emergency, which is only issued when there is a severe danger to human life.
So that’s the NWS side of things. How about Texas?
Well, according to Gov. Greg Abbott, the NWS said it would flood, but it neglected to emphasize the severity.
"The problem with that is that, to most people in the area, flash flooding would mean one thing, not what it turned out to be, because they deal with flash floods all the time. There's the potential for flash flooding, but there's no expectation of a water wall of almost thirty feet high," he said.
Also, according to Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring Jr., the problem was that “this came at night when people were asleep in bed.”
It isn’t clear if Herring’s complaint was that the NWS warnings came while people were asleep or that the storm did, but either interpretation makes Herring look like a buffoon.
The state government also seems quite willing to place blame on local officials. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said that local mayors and county officials are supposed to evacuate their residents if they feel the need.
And those local officials? They’re throwing their own residents under the bus. Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly explained that the county doesn’t have its own warning system because it costs too much and “taxpayers won’t pay for it.”
And what does President Donald Trump think about all of this? Surely he’ll have some words of comfort.
"I'll tell you, if you look at that, what a situation that all is. And that was really the Biden setup. That was not our setup. But I wouldn't blame Biden for it, either. I would just say this is a 100-year catastrophe, and it's just so horrible to watch,” he said.
Trump is also planning to visit the flood-ravaged area on Friday, an entire week after the flooding began.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues its stellar track record of being unable to coordinate messaging. While whining that it was “shameful and disgusting” that anyone would say that NWS cuts might be to blame, a White House spokesperson said that “NWS did their job, even issuing a flood watch more than 12 hours in advance.”
But Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and, by extension, NWS, kicked her own team in the teeth, saying that the “moderate” flood watch wasn’t enough because it didn’t predict the amount of rain.
Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas is calling for an investigation into whether the staffing cuts at NWS played a role in the shocking death toll.
There’s no doubt that letting the untrained teen gremlins at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency gut government agencies contributed to this catastrophe. On the day of the flooding, the San Angelo NWS office was down a senior hydrologist, a staff forecaster, and a meteorologist. And the vacancy rate at the two local NWS offices is about double what it was before Trump took office.
But perhaps the most glaring evidence is that the NWS was also missing a warning coordination meteorologist, who had taken one of the retirement bribes that the Trump administration forced on federal employees. Warning coordinators liaise with local public safety officials, so the lack of that role likely compromised efforts to keep people safe.
There’s plenty of blame to go around here. Trump let his team gut the NWS, and it’s absurd to pretend that didn’t play a role here. But Texas’ desire to do things on the cheap can’t be discounted either.
No rules, no coordination, no accountability—just vibes. Seems to be working out just fine.
Campaign ActionCartoon: American values
July 7th, 2025 07:59 pmdailykos_feedA cartoon by Mike Luckovich.
Related | Stephen Miller whines to Fox News over criticism of twisted migrant camp
The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Monday, July 7th
July 7th, 2025 04:40 pmfatalfae posting in su_heraldSpike: It's done, baby.
Drusilla: Kill her for princess?
Spike: I'll chop her into messes.
Drusilla: You are my sweet... my little Spike.
~~School Hard~~
[Drabbles & Short Fiction]
- Ficlet: Reborn by badly_knitted (Angelus, Angel, PG)
- Looks Like a Nail by arcanedreamer (Crossover w/ Iron Man, Xander, T)
- Reborn by badly_knitted (Angelus, Angel, T)
- Xander Gets His Due by Ephemeral42 (Xander, Buffy, K+)
- Reborn by badly-knitted (Angel, Angelus, T)
[Chaptered Fiction]
- Nothing New, Chapter 4 by L0zerEmz0 (Spike/Buffy, Dawn, Angel, T)
- Building a Future, Chapter 1 by AsarStar (Buffy, Faith, T)
- You surely don't help, Chapter 2 by Perelynn (Spike/Buffy, BtVS Ensemble, T)
- To Be A Lover, Chapter 2 by spellboundbymoonlight (Spike/Buffy, BtVS Ensemble, E)
- Violin Violence, Chapter 1 by Laqt15 (Spike/Buffy, Not Rated)
- Things I Can’t Spell, Chapter 4 by Cazzyy (BtVS Ensemble, Angel, Angelus, E)
- Something Borrowed, Chapter 12 by Geliot99 (Buffy/Spike, Giles, Willow, Riley, M)
- New Benediction, Chapter 8 by DeezBoots (Angel/Buffy, M)
- Sojourns in Heaven, Chapter 12 by elements (Buffy/Spike, BtVS Ensemble, Angel, E)
- Life After Death, Chapter 4 by Holly (Buffy/Spike, Dawn, Ensemble, NC-17)
- Refractions, Chapter 17 by CheekyKitten (Buffy/Spike, R)
- Gee, Mr. White!, Chapter 5 by ClowniestLivEver (Buffy/Spike, BtVS Ensemble, Lorne, R)
- The Pryce of Tyme, Chapter 15 by Joan963z, Ragini (Buffy/Spike, BtVS & AtS Ensembles, NC-17)
- Something to Believe In, Chapter 36 by Maxine Eden (Buffy/Spike, BtVS Ensemble, Angel, Fred, R)
- Thursday... what a concept, Chapter 10 by NotYourGrave (Buffy/Spike, R)
- Adventures of a Retired Slayer, Chapter 37 by EnchantedWillow (Buffy/Spike, Ensemble, R)
- Something Borrowed, Chapter 12 by Geliot99 (Buffy/Spike, Giles, Willow, Riley, R)
- Sojourns in Heaven, Chapter 12 by elements (Buffy/Spike, BtVS Ensemble, Angel, NC-17)
- Miss Buffy, the Vulgar Witness, Chapter 7 by Orange Wombat (Buffy/Spike, Fanged Four, Sam Lawson, Adult Only)
- Bachelor of Metaphysics: Apocalypse Prevention, Chapter 2 by VoronaFiernan (Buffy/Spike, BtVS Ensemble, PG-13)
- Building a Future, Chapter 1 by AsarStar (Buffy, Faith, FR13)
- Callback, Chapter 27 by hysteriumredux (Multiple Crossings, FR7)
- Something Borrowed, Chapter 12 by Geliot99 (Buffy/Spike, Giles, Willow, Riley, R)
- Sojourns in Heaven, Chapter 12 by elements (Buffy/Spike, BtVS Ensemble, Angel, NC-17)
[Images, Audio & Video]
- Artwork: Muse-eum, Chapter 13 by ChaosNina, HappyWhenItRains (ChaosNina) (Spike/Buffy, T)
- Artwork: Who Is That? by soopdumpling (Oz/Willow, SFW)
- Images: Sarah & James through the years ♥️by misskittyspuffy (SFW)
- Artwork: Still thinking about them every moment of every day. by doodlejoops (Spuffy, SFW)
- Artwork: S02 ep 03 SPIKE N DRU by soopdumpling (SFW)
- Artwork: Fang Four forever by coffeehunt (Fanged Four, SFW)
- GIFset: BEST OF BTVS: Angel & Drusilla by clarkgriffon (SFW)
- Artwork: Muse-eum, Chapter 13 by HappyWhenItRains (Spuffy, PG-13)
[Reviews & Recaps]
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer S2E18 'Killed by Death' REACTION by Simple Reactions
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer 6x5: Life Serial Reaction!!! by Pennywell Productions
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season Five, Episode Fifteen: I Was Made to Love You by Slayed! The Buffyverse Revisited Podcast
- Buffy S2E3 "School Hard" Review by Major Slayage - A Buffy Rewatch Podcast
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 2, Episode 8. First Time Watching reaction by Watch This! with Joe and Kevin
[Fandom Discussions]
- currently on season 5 of angel and i've been having lots of fuffy and spangel thoughts. by cantstandlosingyou
- how is it that during “something blue”, Spike and Buffy demonstrate one of the healthiest relationships I’ve seen for the Scoobies? by femmedefandom
- jesse's name never comes up again and i think that's a shame. by no-resolution
- they should've brought him back as a robot by garscrucible
- there’s a very petty part of me that thinks it would be karma if Willow, at the beginning of season seven, had come back to live in Sunnydale by femmedefandom
- Okay, has any Buffy fan ever felt sad about never getting to go to a place like The Bronze? by lillitth
- I love them together but yeah that break up is understandable actually by lynx-brynjar
- they keep writing oz as some sarcastic stoner by hexcata
- Any clues yet as to when the pilot will start filming? by holymacanolee
- Buffy's style by solarmelodic
- lost motivation to watch after Sleep Tight by ebxtg
- I think they should have made Faith a Slaypire by spell-byte
- What’s the most creative nickname you have for a character? by Taras_Willowverse
- Watching Angel for the first time and this guest star was so confusing by DGReddAuthor
- Turns out Buffy is my emotional support show by Necronikki
- Faith question.. (spoilers) by Tsole96
- What goes to the afterlife in the buffyverse? by Professional-Food773
- I just clocked Tara is attacked in episode 19 of every season she's in by anon123998
- Something funny I noticed. Does Warren just have a massive stash of these jackets or did he go back to the crime scene to get it? Jonathan and Andrew had identical ones too 😂 by Honey_Banana1
- What was your reaction and thoughts to 'The Body'? by Big-Restaurant-2766
- Would Buffy have made the same decision as Angel if she were in his place (love vs powers)? by SafiraAshai
- Angel in btvs vs angel in his show by No-Preparation-889
- The upcoming Buffy sequel series has an opportunity to do something funny if they want to update us by writeitregreddit
- Buffy vamps as VtM Clans by kitkat1224666
- Would Adam have been able to tell about the altered memories/reality in Season 5? by GreyStagg
[ SECRET POST #6758 ]
July 7th, 2025 04:40 pmcase posting in fandomsecrets⌈ Secret Post #6758 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.
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Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 24 secrets from Secret Submission Post #965.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
MAGA world implodes after Trump cronies flip-flop on Epstein files
July 7th, 2025 06:30 pmdailykos_feedMAGA influencers are short-circuiting after President Donald Trump's Department of Justice on Sunday leaked a memo saying there are no bombshell files about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and that the deceased financier indeed committed suicide in a federal prison.
"This systematic review revealed no incriminating 'client list,'" said the joint memo from the DOJ and FBI, which was obtained by Axios. "There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties."
Trump and his aides—including Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino—had previously said the government was sitting on an Epstein client list to protect the powerful people within it. Bongino also bought into the conspiracy that Epstein was murdered in a prison to keep damaging information about powerful people from coming out in a trial.
After Trump reentered the White House, Bondi tried to appease the base that was demanding the release of the purported Epstein files by holding a stunt at the White House where she gave a group of Trump-loving social media personalities binders it claimed were filled with the purported documents.
The binders, however, contained no new evidence and led to yet another MAGA meltdown.
When Trump’s MAGA base demanded more information, Bondi told Fox News that she had Epstein's client list "sitting on my desk right now to review"—a comment we now know to be a lie as the DOJ said in its memo that no client list ever existed.
MAGA influencers once again are incensed as they work out who they are going to blame for this latest let down: Bondi, Patel, Bongino, or Dear Leader himself.
"Blondi lied[.] She was always lying," right-wing bigot/influencer Laura Loomer wrote in a post on X, adding, "Who releases a statement about the Epstein files on the Sunday night of 4th of July weekend? Someone who doesn’t want you paying attention."
"Pam Bondi said the Epstein client list was on her desk to review for release to the public just a few months ago. Now the DOJ she leads claims that there’s no Epstein client list. Sorry but this is unacceptable," right-wing podcaster Robby Starbuck wrote in a post on X. "Was she lying then or is she lying now? We deserve answers."
"Dan Bongino either lied to us on his podcast for several years or he is lying to us now," Alexander Sheppard, a pardoned Capitol insurrectionist, wrote in a post on X.
And Mike Cernovich, a Trump fan who posed gleefully with the phony Epstein files at the White House in February, pleaded for Trump to release the files he desperately wants to believe exist.
“No one is believing the Epstein coverup, @realDonaldTrump. This will be part of your legacy. There’s still time to change it!” Cernovich wrote in a post on X.
Meanwhile, billionaire Elon Musk, the former co-president turned persona non grata in Trump-land, also mocked the Trump administration over the Epstein memo.
Musk, who just a few weeks ago said the Trump administration was sitting on the Epstein files because Trump was in them, posted a meme mocking those who believed the Epstein files would ever released as clowns.
Campaign ActionTrump administration slaps high cost on federal workers' free speech
July 7th, 2025 05:00 pmdailykos_feedEnvironmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin might be very skilled at Making Coal Great Again, but he’s not so solid on the whole First Amendment thing.
The EPA just put 144 people on administrative leave for signing a letter of dissent about the agency’s policies. It follows a March open letter where current and former EPA employees called both President Donald Trump and Zeldin out for their illegal dismantling of the core functions of the agency. However, the March letter was anonymous, and while some of the signatories of the more recent letter chose to remain anonymous, the 144 employees the EPA is now targeting signed the letter with their names and job titles.
In placing the workers on leave, the EPA didn’t hide the ball as to why they were being suspended. An agency spokesperson plainly said they were suspended as retaliation for their speech. “The Environmental Protection Agency has a zero-tolerance policy for career bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging, and undercutting the administration’s agenda as voted for by the great people of this country last November,” said a spokesperson for the agency.
Here’s the thing. Government employees enjoy the protections of the First Amendment, even if the Trump administration doesn’t believe they should. Public employees are protected when speaking out about matters of public concern, which Zeldin’s hijacking of the EPA to, in his words, “drive a dagger through the heart of climate change religion” definitely is. There are a couple of caveats. If public employees are speaking in their official capacity about something that is normally part of their official job duties, then First Amendment protections don’t apply.
Here, just because people used their job title doesn’t magically mean they were speaking in an official capacity. The letter of dissent specifically does not purport to speak for the EPA but is instead directed to Zeldin. Additionally, it’s incredibly unlikely that anyone who signed the letter was doing that as part of their official job duties, unless someone’s job duty is to write public letters about the state of the EPA.
The right of public employees to speak out has to be balanced by the employer’s interest in a workplace that is efficient and free of distraction. In other words, the speech of public employees may not be protected if it disrupts the workplace. But that’s a fairly high bar. If the speech interferes with the ability of superiors to discipline workers, impairs the employee’s job performance, or harms certain work relationships, then it may be disruptive enough that First Amendment protections don’t apply.
That might vaguely be what the EPA is asserting here when it complained that the letter doesn’t represent the views of all the agency employees. That’s true, but the letter doesn’t purport to represent everyone at the EPA. It represents the people who signed the letter.
Normally, these 144 employees would have recourse via the independent agencies tasked with protecting federal employees. It’s a pretty slam-dunk case of retaliation for protected speech when your employer suspends you for saying something the employer doesn’t like. But the conservative majority on the Supreme Court blessed Trump’s illegal removal of independent board members, which means that those independent agencies aren’t really independent any longer. Trump’s removal of Cathy Harris, the head of the Merit Systems Protection Board, left the MSPB with no quorum.
The MSPB is where federal employees go to challenge an adverse action, such as a firing or suspension. Without a quorum, employees can still file appeals with the MSPB, and administrative judges can rule on those claims. However, if the employee or the agency disagrees with the ruling, they can petition the MSPB for review. If there’s no quorum, the board can’t review the ruling and issue a final decision. Put simply, even if these employees pursue relief through the MSPB, the EPA can just state it disagrees with the finding, and the entire process then stalls without a quorum.
Trump has also compromised the other path for federal employees to seek relief. The Office of the Special Counsel provides a secure channel for federal whistleblowers and protects federal employees from prohibited practices, such as coercing partisan political activity. Federal workplaces are supposed to be free of partisan politics, but it doesn't get more partisan than suspending employees because you think they are “sabotaging and undercutting the administration’s agenda as voted for by the great people of this country last November.”
However.
Trump has nominated far-right troll Paul Ingrassia to lead the OSC. Ingrassia is a 30-year-old with a fervor for violent misogynist Andrew Tate and an affection for white nationalist Nick Fuentes. He appears to have called for Trump to declare martial law after the 2020 election, and might be a 9/11 truther. Somehow, it doesn’t seem like Ingrassia, if confirmed, will ensure that federal workplaces remain nonpartisan.
Trump treats the presidency like an extension of his person, and his Cabinet has adopted that same framing: People voted for Trump, which means they preapproved anything he chooses to do. Any disagreement, therefore, means you are not respecting the will of the voters.
It isn’t surprising, with that mindset, that the administration is coming for the free speech rights of public employees. After all, how dare they speak out against Dear Leader?
Just because the GOP has signed on to Trump’s cult of personality doesn’t mean that federal workers have to do so as well.
Campaign ActionMan killed after shooting at a US Border Patrol facility in southern Texas
July 7th, 2025 04:26 pmdailykos_feedA 27-year-old man was killed Monday after opening fire at a U.S. Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas, authorities said.
Ryan Louis Mosqueda had an assault rifle and was carrying a utility vest when federal agents returned fire on Monday morning, McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez told reporters Monday morning. Rodriguez said police received a call about the shooting around 5:50 a.m. and that Mosqueda fired dozens of rounds.
The shooting took place at a facility across the street from McAllen International Airport, which was shut down as a precaution.
Law enforcement said afterward they found a second rifle, more ammunition and backpacks that the suspect had brought. Rodriguez said Mosqueda’s motive is currently unknown.
One officer was injured in the shooting, but Rodriguez said it was unclear if the injury was from shrapnel or a bullet.
Mosqueda allegedly pulled up to the facility in a white two-door sedan. Rodriguez said something was written on the car, possibly in Latin, but “what it means, or whether or not it is an underlying reason for him being here, I do not know.”
Mosqueda was linked to an address in Michigan, but was reported missing from a Weslaco, Texas, address around 4 a.m. Monday. Weslaco is about 20 miles from the Border Patrol facility.
“An hour and a few minutes later, he was at this particular location opening fire on the federal building and our federal agents,” Rodriguez said.
Additional information about the missing person report, including who reported it and the circumstances, was not immediately made available.
Going forward, the FBI will be handling the investigation, Rodriguez said.
Trump threatens not to chicken out yet again over tariffs
July 7th, 2025 03:30 pmdailykos_feedOn Sunday, President Donald Trump once again ratcheted up his destructive and nonsensical trade war, saying that the outrageously high "Liberation Day" tariff rates he announced in April will be put back in place for countries that do not reach trade deals before his arbitrary 90-day pause deadline expires on July 9.
"I am pleased to announce that the UNITED STATES TARIFF Letters, and/or Deals, with various Countries from around the World, will be delivered starting 12:00 P.M. (Eastern), Monday, July 7th. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DONALD J. TRUMP, President of The United States of America," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Letters” is how the administration refers to notices of tariff rates “and/or deals.”
This confirms a statement Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made on CNN earlier in the day when he said that if countries "don’t move things along, then on August 1, you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level.”
Trump also took his tariff threat a step further, saying in a subsequent Truth Social post that, "Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy." The 11 nations in the BRICS alliance have threatened to make their own form of currency, which Trump is seeking to stop.
Of course, who the heck knows what will happen with tariff rates, as Trump on Sunday appeared confused by reporters' questions about if and when the “Liberation Day” tariffs would go back into effect when the 90-day pause expires.
“Do the tariff rates change at all on July 9th or do they change on August 1st?” a reporter asked Trump.
“What are you talking about?” Trump replied.
When the reporter pressed again about what day the tariffs would go back into place, Trump responded with more word salad that didn’t answer the question.
“They're going to be tariffs. The tariffs are going to be the tariffs. I think we'll have most countries done by July 9th. Yeah. Either a letter or a deal,” Trump said.
Ultimately, if Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs—which were not only ridiculously high but were so shoddily done that even countries like the uninhabited Heard Island and McDonald Islands received tariffs—go back into effect, it will have horrible consequences for the U.S. economy.
When he first announced the tariffs in April, it sent the stock market into a tailspin, as investors worried that Trump's trade policy would plunge the United States into a recession.
But as it became clear that Trump almost always pulls a TACO (which stands for Trump Always Chickens Out), investors no longer responded with fear to Trump's tariff announcements, as they assume he will reverse them before they cause too much harm to the economy.
Indeed, the stock market on Monday has barely reacted to Trump's latest tariff threats, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 barely down.
Still, even at the current 10% tariff rate Trump has placed on nearly every country in the world, inflation has ticked up slightly and the private sector job market is weakening.
If Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs do go into place, economists say the bottom will fall out.
“‘We haven’t seen price hikes yet’ is not the win some folks think it is. Our data are backward looking, and many of the worst tariffs are in the midst of a soon-to-end 90 day pause. Economic gravity still applies: Tariffs raise costs, and someone's going to pay,” economist Justin Wolfers told CNN.
Campaign ActionParents of men illegally sent to El Salvador beg you not to look away
July 7th, 2025 02:30 pmdailykos_feedMirelys Casique’s line went quiet before the sound of stifled tears filled the speaker.
“We are the faces of the victims, of this pain,” she told Daily Kos from her temporary living quarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
Casique, along with four other Venezuelan parents and the wife of a deported man, is currently seeking justice for her detained son. This was the only reprieve she had between endless days of knocking on doors and attending meetings at what Casique described as the United Nations’ “palace.”
“I don’t have the finest clothes, and I’m not very well-spoken. I don’t have a great profession, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have rights,” she told Daily Kos. “However, there have been many people here who have shown empathy, who have taken the time to investigate our children. They will do everything they can, but honestly, we haven’t received what we hoped for.”
Nearly two weeks prior, Casique and the other parents flew to Geneva in hope of getting the United Nations to intervene in President Donald Trump’s detainment of more than 250 Venezuelan men in El Salvador’s notoriously violent prison, CECOT.
“Of course, we are secondary victims, but we are victims because we are mothers, fathers, families that have been devastated. And, oh my God, how hard it has been to defend the innocent,” she told Daily Kos.
Casique is working on behalf of her 24-year-old son, Francisco Garcia Casique, who—while working as a barber in Texas as he attended mandatory immigration court hearings—was violently abducted by ICE in the middle of the night and later shackled and flown to CECOT.
Francisco, like many of the other detainees, has so far only been accused of being a Tren de Aragua gang member because of his tattoos. And while U.S. judges and the Supreme Court have attempted to intervene, men like Francisco still sit behind bars without a chance to prove their innocence.
Now Casique joins Karlyn Fuentes, Jetzy Arteaga, Angel Blanco, and Yosleidy Chaco in Geneva, though the lack of communication has made it difficult to know whether their sons—Francisco, Joen Suarez, and Carlos Alejandro Cañizales—are alive.
“I still couldn’t even say for sure that my son is there,” Fuentes, the mother of 23-year-old Suarez, told Daily Kos.
Soon after discovering their sons’ names on the deportation flight list, these parents formed what they now call Committee for the Defense of the 252 Venezuelans Kidnapped in El Salvador. As of late June, more than 100 parents have joined the committee.
“We are a family of struggle—sisters in struggle—and we are always there for one another,” Artaega, the mother of Cañizales, said. “When one is in depression, the other is there. When one is calm, the other is crying. You don’t sleep. You don’t eat.”
The only person who can officially condemn human rights violations at the international level is the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.
While Türk has called for the United States to carry out due process, the Venezuelan parents of those who have been detained present a unique challenge: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has a record of extreme human rights violations of his own.
In the past year, Maduro has been under fire for blatantly stealing an election from his challenger and imprisoning the opposition. The now third-time elected president also imprisoned a group of economists who reported data on the country’s declining economy.
On the outside, it may not seem fair to cast blame on these parents for the actions of their government. But as professor and Latin American political affairs expert David Smilde told Daily Kos, that’s unfortunately the way that it is.
“Nobody wants to listen to Maduro. [The U.N.] is really limited in what it can actually do with this because they’re such a stigmatized government,” Smilde said.
This may be why, when speaking with Daily Kos, the parents distanced themselves from their government, focusing instead on the heartwrenching stories of their abducted children.
The parents told Daily Kos that their trip to Geneva was funded by non-governmental organizations, but there are indications that funding came, in some capacity, from Maduro’s pocket—potentially making their association with the Venezuelan government hard to ignore. For instance, the family members appeared alongside Venezuela’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Alexander Yánez Deleuze.
But Casique told Daily Kos that she’s not there to atone for the actions of her government.
“What fault do we have for the political and diplomatic problems happening?” she asked. “How long will we have to keep suffering?”
Related | Freeing Widmer: An aunt’s journey to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison
While the fate of their sons remains to be seen, these parents vow to continue holding each other up—for the sake of their children.
“One day you spend the entire day crying, praying to God. And the next day you tell yourself, ‘I have to get up,’” Fuentes told Daily Kos. “Because if I stay trapped in bed, there is no one to raise their voice for my son.”
Freelance journalist Juan Diego Ramirez contributed to this reporting.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include additional names of family members and to clarify the Venezuelan government’s potential role in the case.
Campaign ActionRepublicans face voter rage—and Democrats their first big test
July 7th, 2025 01:30 pmdailykos_feedRepublicans are in for a long, hot summer in Washington, and the blistering sun is only partly to blame. Two new polls show Americans souring on President Donald Trump’s extreme policy agenda.
The polls, from KFF and Fox News, reveal concerning trends about the Republican base, including that non-MAGA Republicans now oppose Trump’s signature legislation, the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which passed Congress earlier this week.
Five months into his presidency, voter confidence in the economy remains low. Despite Trump’s big talk of a new “golden age of America,” nearly 6 in 10 registered voters (58%) disapprove of his handling of the economy, according to Fox News’ poll. It also found that fewer than half (48%) say their family is holding steady financially.
If Trump’s troubles were limited to the economy, Republicans could distract voters by turning to the normally safe territory of immigration policy. Except now they can’t. Media coverage of Trump’s brutal deportation agenda has eroded voter support. Trump is currently underwater, on net, in his handling of immigration, according to election analyst Nate Silver’s polling average.
Trump’s problems multiply when voters are asked about his “One Big Beautiful Bill,” his Medicaid-slashing, debt-exploding budget plan. Polls have shown for weeks that most Democrats and independents oppose it, but new data from health policy outlet KFF shows that nearly a third of all Republicans do too.
Overall, 61% of Republicans support Trump’s budget, but that support is concentrated in the party’s MAGA base. Meanwhile, 66% of Republicans who do not support the MAGA movement oppose the budget. Those frustrated Republicans open up an opportunity for Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party’s primary organization for electing Democrats to the House, plans to launch a nationwide media campaign tying vulnerable House Republicans to Trump’s anchor of a budget. That campaign joins an ongoing effort by the Democratic National Committee to fill swing districts with billboards and local advertising touting the budget’s attack on health care and social services.
"From now until November 2026, the DCCC will continue to communicate the harm this bill will cause," the DCCC said in a memo. "Republicans will lose the [House] majority in 2026 and the Big, Ugly Bill will be the reason why."
Last month, a coalition of Democratic groups launched “Organizing Summer,” which DNC Chair Ken Martin described as a plan to invest over $1 million in winning various Virginia’s statewide elections this November. Unions are also investing heavily in linking Republican lawmakers with Trump’s budget plan, including a nationwide bus tour led by the AFL-CIO.
This year marks the first major test of Martin’s ability to use the DNC as an advocacy tool. With him opening the DNC’s financial floodgates and GOP lawmakers retiring rather than face angry voters, Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill is on the verge of becoming his party’s One Big Beautiful Blowout this year and next.
GOP leaders know they can’t hold the House of Representatives or the Senate in 2026 if their part of their base stays home or, God forbid, votes for a Democrat next year. But they can’t back down, either, for fear of enraging Trump. Republicans are stuck. And for once, Democrats are ready to pounce.
Campaign ActionChicago’s plan to replace lead pipes puts it 30 years behind the federal deadline
July 7th, 2025 01:00 pmdailykos_feedBanking for now on an outdated EPA rule from the first Trump administration, the city with the most lead service lines in the country doesn’t plan to finish replacing them until 2076.
By Keerti Gopal and Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco for Inside Climate News
Growing up in Chicago, Chakena D. Perry knew not to trust the water coming out of her tap.
“It was just one of these unspoken truths within households like mine—low-income, Black households—that there was some sort of distrust with the water,” said Perry, who later learned that Chicago is the city with the most lead service lines in the country. “No one really talked about it, but we never used our tap for just regular drinking.”
Now, as a senior policy advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council, Perry is part of a coalition that fought for stricter rules to force cities like Chicago to remove their toxic lead pipes faster. Last year, advocates celebrated a big win: The Biden-era U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mandated that water systems across the country replace all their lead service lines. Under the new rule, most water systems will have 10 years to complete replacements, while Chicago will likely get just over 20, starting in 2027, when that requirement kicks in.
But the city’s replacement plan, submitted to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency in April per state law and obtained through a public records request, puts it 30 years behind that timeline.
Chicago’s plan adheres to state law and an outdated EPA rule from the first Trump administration. It aims to replace the city’s estimated 412,000 lead service lines by 2076—completing 8,300 replacements annually for 50 years, starting in 2027.
The latest federal rule requires Chicago to replace nearly 20,000 pipes per year beginning in 2027—more than double the speed of the city’s current plan. Documents show city officials are aware of the new requirements, but have not yet updated their plans.
A delayed timeline will expose many more children and adults to the risk of toxic drinking water, and rising temperatures from climate change may exacerbate the risk by causing more lead to leach off pipes and into water.
For Perry, even 20 more years of lead pipes was a compromise.
“People are already being exposed—they’re being exposed daily,” Perry said. “There is no number [of years] that is satisfactory to me, but 20-ish years is better than 50.”
In recent decades, drinking water crises in Washington, D.C., and Flint, Michigan, put the public health threat of lead on the national map. Lead pipes are a danger across the country, where about 9 million lead service lines need to be replaced to adhere to the new requirements. About a million of those are in Illinois—the most of any state in the country. Among the five U.S. cities estimated to have the most lead pipes—Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Detroit and Milwaukee—only Chicago has yet to adopt the latest federal deadline. The rest plan to replace their lead pipes within a decade of 2027.
Lead can damage the human brain and nervous system, kidney function and reproductive health, and it’s also an underappreciated cause of cardiovascular problems.
Lead is particularly harmful to children: It can hamper brain development and cause permanent intellectual disabilities, fatigue, convulsions, comas or even death. Lead exposure during pregnancy can also cause low birth weight or preterm birth.
Experts emphasize that there is no safe level of lead exposure.
In Illinois, the Metropolitan Planning Council found that people of color are up to twice as likely as white people to live in a community burdened by lead service lines.
Because of a three-year grace period in the 2024 EPA rule—the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, or LCRI—the city does not have to begin complying with the new replacement requirements until 2027. But Chicago’s plan outlines a timeline that starts the very same year and is significantly slower.
“I’m not sure what Chicago is thinking there,” said Marissa Lieberman-Klein, an Earthjustice attorney focused on lead in drinking water.
Chicago is facing a herculean task. Even with a 50-year timeline, it will have to start moving much faster than its current replacement speed: The city will need to replace more lead service lines annually than the total of 7,923 it managed over the past four years ending in March. Of these replacements, about 60 percent occurred alongside repairs for breaks and leaks or water and sewer main replacements.
Megan Vidis, a spokesperson for the Chicago Department of Water Management, said Chicago is ramping up its replacement speeds. The city will replace 8,000 lines this year, she said.
“We have been and will continue to move as quickly as resources allow to replace lead service lines,” Vidis wrote in an email.
Asked about the feasibility of the current EPA rule’s 20-year replacement timeline, Vidis wrote, “We need substantial additional funding, particularly the kind available to help pay for private side replacements.” That refers to the city’s split ownership structure, where homeowners own one part of the line and the city owns the other.
Related | Flint water council chair troubled by EPA's all-clear declaration
Erik D. Olson, senior strategic director for environmental health at the NRDC, said these financial woes are a reason for Chicago to put forward a more ambitious replacement plan.
Olson pointed out that $15 billion in national lead service line replacement funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the bipartisan infrastructure law, expire next year.
“If Chicago isn’t beating down the doors to get that money, that is tragic, because that money could evaporate,” Olson said. “They should be front-end loading as much of the service line replacement as they possibly can.”
U.S. EPA spokesperson David Shark confirmed that Illinois water systems are currently under the new rule. But the agency did not answer specific questions about Illinois’ obligations between now and when the compliance deadlines start in 2027, citing pending litigation on the rule.
Illinois EPA spokesperson Kim Biggs wrote in an email that the state is operating under the replacement requirements included in the 2021 EPA rule and the state’s law until 2027.
Lead service lines were required by Chicago’s municipal code—reportedly influenced by lead companies and the plumbers union—for decades after much of the country stopped using them due to health concerns. According to a study published last year, two-thirds of the city’s youngest children—under six years old—live in homes with tap water containing detectable levels of lead.
Drinking water is just one way that people are exposed to lead. It’s also found in soil and paint. But experts estimate that water could make up at least 20 percent of a person’s exposure.
When lead pipes corrode, the toxic material can dissolve or flake into water and poison residents without their knowledge. Rising temperatures due to climate change could be exacerbating lead risks, and researchers have found that childhood lead poisoning levels spike during hotter periods.
Perry now lives in Oak Forest, one of Chicago’s south suburbs, but she also owns the home her mother lives in, on Chicago’s South Side. That home has a lead service line, Perry said, and she doesn’t know when it will be replaced.
The city has “a responsibility to the residents in the city of Chicago to protect them at all costs,” Perry said. “There’s no price that’s too high to pay for safe drinking water.”
Limbo: Navigating Evolving State and Federal Requirements
Chicago’s plan is based on a 2021 state law requiring that water systems with 100,000 or more lead service lines—which includes Chicago—replace all of them within 50 years from 2027.
At the time of its passage, this state law was stronger than the federal Lead and Copper Rule Revisions of 2021, which did not require replacement in most cases.
Experts and advocates criticized and even sued the EPA over that rule—enacted by the Trump administration in the final days of the president’s first term—saying it weakened existing efforts to achieve safe drinking water nationwide.
Near the end of President Joe Biden’s term, the EPA finalized the current rule. Most systems across the country must replace all their lead service lines before 2038, with deferral allowances for places with large proportions of lead service lines—like Chicago, which would likely get until mid-2049 to finish.
The EPA estimated that each year this rule will prevent up to 900,000 cases of low birth weight and 1,500 cases of premature death from heart disease. Many advocates praised the rule, while others noted that two more decades of lead pipes still pose significant health risks in Chicago.
Related | 'Maybe you would give a damn': Democrat skewers EPA administrator
But according to the document the city submitted to the state, Chicago’s plan hasn’t yet caught up to the newer federal law. The plan acknowledges the faster federal timeline but notes that Chicago isn’t abiding by that yet.
The city, its plan states, will comply “if the regulations go into effect.”
Nationally, the regulation is already in effect, Earthjustice’s Lieberman-Klein said, and the EPA does not need to release any additional documents to make that true.
But what city officials might be thinking, she said, is that given the continued rollbacks of many environmental and health regulations by President Donald Trump’s EPA, this requirement might eventually be wiped off the books.
“It’s possible Chicago is just looking at what this administration has been generally saying about rules promulgated by the previous administration, and it’s saying, ‘We’d like to wait and see what they say about this rule,’” Lieberman-Klein said.
Some congressional Republicans tried to revoke the lead pipe replacement rule legislatively, but they missed the deadline to do so.
Last year, the American Water Works Association—a water industry organization—challenged the rule in court, alleging that its requirements are not feasible. Environmental groups stepped in to defend the rule, but it remains to be seen whether the EPA will do likewise. The agency declined to comment on the pending litigation.
Chicago’s water department cited the lawsuit as one of its reasons for submitting a plan that doesn’t account for the 20-year replacement timeline. But the rule isn’t on pause, Earthjustice’s Lieberman-Klein clarified.
“The litigation does not stay the rule or change its effective date,” she said. “It still went into effect at the end of October and nothing about the compliance dates have changed.”
Where Will Chicago Find the Money to Get Out the Lead?
Over the past few years, Chicago officials say each service line replacement has averaged about $35,000, although they plan to lower these costs by more frequently replacing the service lines for full blocks at a time. This is much higher than national estimates, which range from about $4,700 to $12,000 per line.
Regardless, it will be no easy feat for Chicago to piece together the funds to finish the job quickly, and big proposed cuts to federal funding would make a challenging task even harder.
The Trump administration’s proposal for the EPA next fiscal year would cut the agency’s budget by more than half. Part of that plan: slashing almost all the money for the low-interest loan program that states rely on to update water pipes.
Trump’s budget proposal says “the States should be responsible for funding their own water infrastructure projects.” Chicago’s plan notes that $2 million of expected funding for a program focused on replacing lead service lines in daycares serving low-income communities was lost this year in the blanket elimination of congressional earmarks.
Related | EPA workers write open letter warning of Trump's devastating impact
Megan Glover, co-founder and former CEO of 120Water, an Indiana-based company that runs a digital platform to help water systems manage lead replacement programs, wasn’t surprised by the news. Federal funding is a concern for her company’s customers across the country, she said.
“All grants and earmarks, we’re kind of starting from a ground-zero standpoint,” Glover said. “All of that is kind of up for grabs at this point with the new administration.”
Anna-Lisa Gonzales Castle is director of water policy at Elevate, a Chicago-based nonprofit focused on water and energy affordability that is also involved with local lead service line replacement programming. She said that ramping up replacement speeds will be a challenge, but homeowners shouldn’t be left on the hook for something that wasn’t their fault.
“We want to see the city move swiftly, and we want to see the federal government and the state bring resources to bear on this too,” she said. “It’s gonna be an all-hands-on-deck approach.”
Campaign ActionCartoon: Hell in a handbasket
July 7th, 2025 12:30 pmdailykos_feedAs always, if you find value in this work I do, please consider helping me keep it sustainable by joining my weekly newsletter, Sparky’s List! You can get it in your inbox or read it on Patreon, the content is the same. Don’t forget to visit the Tom Tomorrow Merchandise Mall, and, if you’re so inclined, follow me on Bluesky!
Related | Red states are embracing all the evil policies of Trump
Campaign Action
bags. and bags.
July 6th, 2025 08:22 pmchazzbannerI'm preparing another visit to Goodwill, so there are now two big bags full of books, and small bags with other items.
Seriously dull entry: but I'll feel better once I can see fewer bags and more floor space in the kitchen. Sheesh....
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Why is American pride falling? It’s complicated
July 6th, 2025 11:00 pmdailykos_feedSurvey Says is a weekly series rounding up the most important polling trends or data points you need to know about, plus a vibe check on a trend that’s driving politics.
The Fourth of July is meant to be a celebration of national pride. But in 2025, many Americans aren’t feeling especially patriotic.
A new YouGov survey shows that national pride is waning. Only 68% of Americans say they’re proud to be American, a sharp decline from 83% in 2024. Less than half (48%) say they’re very proud, compared with 56% last year.
Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to express pride in being American—and this gap has widened since last year. Eighty-two percent of Republicans say they’re very proud to be American, compared with just 27% of Democrats. In 2024, the difference was notable but narrower: 74% of Republicans versus 52% of Democrats. This change likely relates to who is in the White House.
Democrats’ declining patriotism has long mirrored the rise of President Donald Trump. In 2017, the year he first took office, Gallup found that about two-thirds of Democrats (67%) said they were “extremely” or “very” proud to be American. But by 2020—just before Trump lost reelection—that number was just 42%.
Now that Trump is back in office, pride among Democrats appears to be falling again. But it’s not just about Trump. A longer trend predates his presidency.
Gallup’s data shows that national pride has been pretty steadily decreasing since at least 2001. The latest figures indicate that only 58% of Americans describe themselves as extremely or very proud to be American—the lowest in the survey’s history. A year ago, under President Joe Biden, that number was 67%.
The YouGov survey adds another perspective: Americans are disillusioned with their fellow citizens. When asked to describe the way most Americans are today using 22 adjectives, 50% chose “selfish”—up from 42% in June 2024.
Other common descriptions included “spoiled” (39%), “intolerant” (37%), “undisciplined” (37%), “gullible” (36%), and “reactionary” (34%). In 2024, only 26% used the word “reactionary.”
Few Americans feel patriotic, too. While 71% of Americans consider themselves at least somewhat patriotic, a divide exists between older and younger adults, according to YouGov. While 88% of those aged 65 and older feel at least somewhat patriotic, only 55% of people ages 18 to 29 do.
So why are young people—and many independents—so disengaged? It could be partly due to a sense of stagnation. Americans don’t just feel less proud—they also don’t feel hopeful about the country’s future. Another new YouGov/The Economist poll found that 58% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track. Only 35% believe it’s heading in the right direction.
There’s also growing skepticism about the American dream. Just 55% of Americans believe it exists, down from 60% a year ago, according to YouGov. And this year, only 36% feel it’s attainable for them personally.
Belief in the American dream also varies by age and economic status. Homeowners (44%) are much more likely than renters (28%) to say it’s within reach, and adults ages 45 and older (44%) are far more optimistic than those under age 45 (27%), YouGov finds.
All of this points to a broader, deeper sense of disillusionment. The patriotism gap between parties has grown wider under Trump. But the decline in national pride is larger than any one president's influence—and it’s increasingly rooted in generational shifts.
YouGov’s key finding? Nearly half of Americans (43%) believe the country is becoming less patriotic. If these trends continue, that number could only rise.
Any updates?
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As heat domes, hurricanes, and wildfires loom, the Trump administration is moving to slash funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Both agencies are widely trusted by the public. According to new polling from Data for Progress, NOAA is viewed favorably by 61% of likely voters, FEMA by 59%, and state emergency agencies by 58%. Despite their popularity and crucial role in disaster response, these agencies now face major cuts, raising alarms among experts as extreme weather intensifies nationwide.
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Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” is projected to add $3.3 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. And Americans seem to get it. New YouGov polling finds that 50% of Americans are aware Trump’s legislation will increase the deficit, though 28% incorrectly say it will not affect the deficit or will decrease it. Given that they could soon feel the impact in their wallets, it’s no surprise that 53% of Americans oppose the legislation, according to YouGov. Just 32% are in favor of it.
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A new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll finds that the vast majority of Americans (76%) believe political divisions in the U.S. pose a serious threat to democracy. The concern cuts across party lines: 89% of Democrats, 80% of independents, and 57% of Republicans say the threat is real. The overall number is actually a big drop from August 2023, when 87% said political divisions threatened democracy. What’s changed? Mostly Republicans. Their sense of alarm has cratered, going from 88% under Biden to just 57% now that Trump is back in the White House.
Vibe check
As of Thursday at 1 PM ET, 44.9% of the public approved of Trump, while 51.4% disapproved—a net approval rating of -6.6 points, after rounding—according to election analyst Nate Silver’s polling average.
About two weeks earlier, Trump’s approval stood slightly higher, at 45.8%, with 51.8% disapproving.
Campaign ActionCartoon: Bribed in 60 minutes
July 6th, 2025 10:55 pmdailykos_feedA cartoon by Clay Jones.
Related | CBS News disgraces itself as parent company bends to Trump
Campaign Action
Inside Elon Musk’s stellar year at the Texas Capitol
July 6th, 2025 09:00 pmdailykos_feedBy Lauren McGaughy, The Texas Newsroom, for ProPublica
Elon Musk was pleading.
It was April 2013, and Musk stood at a podium in a small committee room in the basement of the Texas Capitol. The Tesla CEO asked the legislators gathered before him to change state law, allowing him to bypass the state’s powerful car dealership lobby and sell his electric vehicles directly to the public.
He painted a bleak picture of what could happen if they didn’t give him his way.
“We would, I’m afraid, we would fail,” Musk told the assembled representatives. “So for us, it’s a matter of life or death.”
Clad in a dark suit instead of his now ubiquitous black T-shirt and baseball hat, the younger Musk was unable to persuade lawmakers in Austin. That year, the bill he wanted to pass died.
More than a decade later, however, Musk’s fortunes inside the Texas Capitol have changed — dramatically.
Musk is now not only one of the richest people in the world, who, until recently, was a key member of President Donald Trump’s second administration, but he’s also become one of the most powerful business and political figures in the state.
During this year’s legislative session, Musk’s lobbyists and representatives publicly advocated for almost a dozen bills that would benefit his companies. The Texas Newsroom identified these priorities by searching legislative records for committee testimony and other evidence of his public stances.
Musk wanted legislators to pass new laws that would make it faster and easier for homeowners to install backup power generators, like the kind Tesla makes, on their properties. He wanted them to create new crimes so people who fly drones or interfere with operations at his rocket company SpaceX can be arrested. And he wanted to change who controlled the highway and public beach near SpaceX’s South Texas site so he can launch his rockets according to his timeline.
Musk got them all.
In a Capitol where the vast majority of bills fail to pass, all but three of Musk’s public priorities will become law. The two bills his lobbyists openly opposed are dead, including a measure that would have regulated autonomous vehicles.
Musk made gains even on bills he didn’t publicly endorse. Texas lawmakers followed the tech giant’s lead by rewriting the state’s corporate laws and creating a new office modeled after the Department of Government Efficiency, the controversial effort he led in the Trump administration to cut federal spending.
By all accounts, Musk’s influence was great enough that he did not have to formally address lawmakers in person this session to make the case for any of his priorities.
Critics said these new laws will hand Musk’s companies more cash, more power and more protection from scrutiny as his business footprint continues to expand across Texas.
“The real harm is the influence of a private company on the decisions made by government,” Cyrus Reed, the conservation director for the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter, told The Texas Newsroom. The Sierra Club is part of a group suing the state over SpaceX’s activities in South Texas.
Musk and his representatives did not respond to requests for an interview. He recently ended his run with DOGE, and his relationship with Trump has increasingly frayed.
Related | ‘The girls’ renew their feud as Trump considers deporting Musk
Contrary to his slash-and-burn tactics in Washington, D.C., where he bulldozed his way onto the scene after Trump’s reelection, Musk has played the long game to amass power in Texas. He still hasn’t succeeded in changing Texas law to allow for Tesla direct sales, but that hasn’t stopped him from steadily investing his personal and professional capital in the state over more than a decade. Most of his businesses, including the tunneling firm The Boring Company, social media giant X and Tesla, are now headquartered here. While it’s still based in California, SpaceX operates production, testing and launch sites across Texas.
Musk has also moved his personal home to the state, reportedly securing properties in the Austin area and South Texas.
In the Texas Capitol, Musk’s power is subtle but undeniable.
Calendars and emails obtained by The Texas Newsroom through public information requests show his company’s representatives met regularly with lawmakers backing his priority bills and invited Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to tour SpaceX. Patrick, who leads the state Senate, also penned a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration supporting the rocket company’s request to increase its launches in South Texas.
Texas politics, with its long history of outsize characters, has never seen the likes of Musk, said Rice University political scientist Mark Jones.
“Even in the heyday of the [George W.] Bush era, you couldn’t find somebody who had such dramatic wealth as Musk, who also had the same level of access and business interests here in Texas,” Jones told The Texas Newsroom. “Today, Elon Musk is arguably the most powerful and influential private citizen in the country.”
“It’s All to Help Elon”
When lawmakers convened their 2025 legislative session in January, one of Musk’s top priorities was quickly clear. He wanted more control over the area around SpaceX’s launch site in South Texas.
Known as Starbase, the massive rocket testing and launch facility has come to dominate the small rural area between Brownsville, on the border, and the Gulf of Mexico. It is the launch site for Starship, the rocket meant to eventually take humans to Mars and the heart of Musk’s mission to make humans a multiplanetary species. The FAA recently gave SpaceX permission to increase Starship launches fivefold.
Although SpaceX owns most of the land around Starbase, county officials retained the authority over access to the adjacent public beach, called Boca Chica. The county worked closely with SpaceX to ensure the area was cleared ahead of launches, but the company’s leaders did not have ultimate control over the process.
That changed this year. First, Musk decided to incorporate the launch site as its own city. That happened on May 3, when the few residents who live in the area — most of whom The Texas Newsroom determined work for SpaceX — voted to create the new city of Starbase.
Musk then wanted state lawmakers to hand the new city the power to close Boca Chica Beach and the adjoining public highway during the week, a change the county officials opposed.
State Sen. Adam Hinojosa, a newly elected Republican who represents the area, authored the legislation to shift control to Starbase. Dozens of SpaceX employees got involved in the effort, submitting pages of identical comments to lawmakers in support.
Democrats succeeded in killing Hinojosa’s bill, prompting local activists to celebrate. Their victory was short-lived. Late in the session, lawmakers decided instead to shift some of this power to the Texas Space Commission, which facilitates the state’s space exploration agenda.
The new law states that the commission’s board can close highways and gulf beaches with the approval of a local municipality, which, in this case, is Starbase. SpaceX retains a connection to the commission itself: Kathy Lueders, who confirmed that she left her job as Starbase general manager last month, still sits on the Space Commission board. She directed additional questions to the commission.
The Space Commission declined to answer questions on SpaceX’s potential future involvement with these discussions.
“The way I view it is SpaceX wanted a certain amount of power,” said Reed, with the Sierra Club. “And at the end of the day, they didn’t quite get it, but they got something pretty close.”
The bill passed along largely partisan lines. Republican state Rep. Greg Bonnen, who authored the bill, did not respond to a request for comment about the role Starbase may play now that it will become law.
Lawmakers passed several more bills to benefit spaceports, the sites where spacecraft launch, like SpaceX.
While Texas is home to multiple spaceports, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, SpaceX dwarfs the rest in size and scope of influence across the state and country, boasting large federal government contracts and a growing satellite industry.
Hinojosa was an author or sponsor on most of these bills; he did not respond to multiple requests for an interview or comment for this story.
Other than the beach closure legislation, many passed with the support of Democrats.
At SpaceX’s urging, Texas lawmakers passed a measure to ban drones over spaceports. They also added spaceports to the state’s “critical infrastructure” facilities, which already include airports and military bases. The law will make it a felony to intentionally damage or interrupt the operation of any site where a spacecraft is tested or launched. Similar critical infrastructure laws have been used in other states to arrest people protesting oil and gas pipeline projects.
Bekah Hinojosa with the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, a local activist group, told The Texas Newsroom the new critical infrastructure law will let Musk “militarize our Boca Chica Beach for his dangerous rocket testing endeavors."
The Sierra Club and other groups from South Texas, including a local Indigenous tribe, are suing the state, arguing that closing Boca Chica violates an amendment to the Texas Constitution that protects access to public beaches.
Related | Inside Elon Musk's creepy quest to build utopian 'company towns'
The General Land Office, the main defendant in that suit, declined to comment. In court filings, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argues the state can still regulate beach access for public safety reasons and that it cannot be sued in this case because it has immunity. The case is pending at the Texas Supreme Court.
Legislators also passed two more new laws that will shield companies like SpaceX from public scrutiny and legal challenges.
One will exempt certain military and aerospace issues from public meetings laws, allowing elected officials in some cases to discuss these topics behind closed doors. The proposal was so concerning to residents who live close to SpaceX’s facility near Waco, where locals say the company’s rocket testing has spooked livestock and damaged homes, that they submitted a dozen comments against it.
This law went into effect on May 15.
Another new law will make it harder for crew members and certain other employees to sue space flight companies. This, like most new legislation approved this session, will become law on Sept. 1.
SpaceX’s only significant public defeat during this year’s legislative session was the failure of a bill it supported to give spaceports a tax cut. The measure would have cost nearly $14.5 million over five years, according to an official estimate from the Legislative Budget Board.
Moriba Jah, a professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin, believes Texas is pandering to Musk.
“It’s all to help Elon,” said Jah, who added that his viewpoint is rooted in resisting policies that enable what he called “environmental plunder masked as ‘innovation.’” He has concerns that the state is investing in spaceports, most notably Musk’s, while carving out exceptions that prohibit public insight and input into what’s happening at those facilities.
“There’s this whole cloak of secrecy with whatever Elon is doing,” Jah said. “We will not and should not cease to launch satellites or explore space. But the way in which we do it matters a lot.”
“They Never Come Out of the Shadows”
This year, Tesla’s lobbyists publicly advocated against only two bills. Both died.
One was a GOP-authored proposal intended to create a buffer zone between homes and large-scale energy storage facilities like the kind Tesla sells.
The other bill would have imposed more regulations on the type of cars that Musk is rolling out as robotaxis in Texas, and would have required a public hearing if a collision involving an autonomous vehicle resulted in a fatality.
Bill author Rep. Terry Canales, an Edinburg Democrat, believes his legislation failed because it was not pro-industry enough.
“Tesla is the worst actor that I’ve ever dealt with in the Capitol. They’re subversive. They never come out of the shadows,” Canales told The Texas Newsroom. “Not only did I not hear from them, I didn’t expect to hear from them because that’s the way they operate.”
Lawmakers instead advanced a different bill, one with a lighter regulatory touch that was crafted with input from the autonomous vehicle industry.
It will require commercial operators, such as robotaxi and driverless big rig companies, to obtain authorization from the state. This approval can be revoked if the company’s vehicles endanger the public, including causing “serious bodily injury,” though it requires no public hearings in the case of a fatality, as Canales’ bill would have done. Autonomous vehicle companies will also have to develop plans for interacting with emergency responders.
Tesla took a neutral stance on the legislation. But the bill’s author, state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, told The Texas Newsroom that Tesla’s team participated in work groups and stakeholder conversations with industry groups, trial lawyers and others.
Texas has been at the forefront of testing this technology for years, rolling out its first regulations in 2017. But with more autonomous vehicles hitting the streets, Nichols said it was time to clarify the rules and called his bill “a real opportunity here to actually improve safety.”
Nichols’ legislation initially died in the Texas House. But with less than a week before lawmakers packed up to go home, a House member added the entirety of Nichols’ bill as an amendment to another transportation bill, which will become law Sept. 1.
Tray Gober, a personal injury lawyer who handles vehicle crash cases in Austin, said it’s smart to get new regulations for autonomous vehicles on the books. But he worries that Texas is rushing to give its blessing to a technology that has not been fully tested.
“We’re not talking about rockets crashing into the ocean. We’re talking about cars crashing into other people,” he said, comparing Tesla to SpaceX. “There’s going to be people that are hurt during this process of improving these systems, and that’s unfortunate. I think it’s viewed as collateral damage by these companies.”
When asked about concerns that there could be fatalities as the number of driverless cars grows in Texas, Nichols said, “There probably will be. Eventually there will be. I would not doubt that.” But he pointed to studies showing autonomous vehicles are safer than human drivers.
“If you start looking at the breakdown of the fatalities on the roads and the crashes and the wrecks, what causes them? It’s not equipment failure. It’s driver distraction,” he told The Texas Newsroom.
Critics of these studies argue their scope is too narrow to make conclusions about the safety of self-driving technology. Citing safety concerns, some local lawmakers asked Tesla’s robotaxi rollout in Austin to be delayed. The company continued with the launch but with human monitors in the passenger seats.
Many Democrats opposed Nichols’ proposal. But at least three other bills affecting Tesla got bipartisan support.
Related | Tesla sales plunge again as anti-Musk boycott shows staying power and rivals pounce
At times, the Sierra Club was fighting against Musk’s SpaceX bills while working with his Tesla lobbyists on clean energy legislation, said Reed, the club’s conservation director. For example, Tesla and the Sierra Club both supported legislation to create new fire standards for battery energy storage facilities and address the environmental and financial challenges associated with decommissioning them.
Tesla also backed a bill that had bipartisan support to make it easier for homeowners to install backup power generators, such as the company’s Powerwall.
Reed said Musk’s shift to the right has created interesting bedfellows, sometimes making it easier for Republicans to back some of the energy policies more traditionally associated with progressives.
He remarked, “It’s an interesting time in our country, right?”
Musk’s Indirect Influence
For all the bills Musk pushed to see pass, he also indirectly influenced the creation of new laws on which he did not take a public stance.
Texas lawmakers created the state’s own DOGE office housed under the governor, the name an homage to Musk’s controversial federal cost-slashing effort in Washington, D.C.
Musk himself took no public role in creating the new office. But at a signing ceremony for the bill, Gov. Greg Abbott explained he was the inspiration.
Texas legislators also rewrote the state’s corporate laws after Musk raised concerns about business codes in other states. Authored by Republican state Sen. Bryan Hughes, the rewrite shields business leaders from lawsuits and establishes thresholds for the types of legal challenges shareholders can file.
Musk and his lobbyists never came out in support of the bill, but he has long complained that states needed to shore up protections for CEOs and other business leaders.
Musk began crusading on the issue after his $55 billion compensation package at Tesla was challenged in Delaware’s business courts. Musk moved many of his businesses elsewhere, including Texas, and publicly urged other companies to “get the hell out of Delaware.”
The legislation written in response was dubbed the “DExit” bill.
“Texas is much better than Delaware,” Musk posted on X in early April, just days after the bill passed the state Senate. “If Delaware doesn’t reform, it will lose all its corporate business.”
Last year, a Delaware judge ruled Musk’s pay package violated his fiduciary duties to the company’s stockholders. He won most of it back in a shareholder vote, but the judge again rejected his pay package in December.
In an interview, Hughes told The Texas Newsroom he heard input from different groups in crafting the Texas legislation and could not remember whether Musk’s companies were involved.
Abbott signed the DExit bill and a handful of other business bills into law on May 14. Standing behind him at a public ceremony marking the occasion were Hughes and a large group of business representatives.
Standing behind Hughes was a representative from Tesla.
Campaign ActionRepublicans fold like a chair over Trump's evil budget plan
July 6th, 2025 07:00 pmdailykos_feedCongressional Cowards is a weekly series highlighting the worst Donald Trump defenders on Capitol Hill, who refuse to criticize him—no matter how disgraceful or lawless his actions.
Republican lawmakers talked a big game about their opposition to President Donald Trump's "One Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” which will strip health care and food stamps from millions while exploding the deficit with tax giveaways to the rich.
So-called "moderate" Republicans claimed to be against the massive Medicaid cuts that will cause millions of low-income Americans to lose their health insurance. And the hard-right "fiscal hawks" crowed about the more than $3 trillion the bill will add to the national deficit—so much that it will spike interest rates and make it more expensive for Americans to borrow money for home or car purchases.
But in the end, they all caved, passing this dumpster fire bill to give Dear Leader a victory—pyrrhic as it appears to be.
Perhaps the biggest coward is GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who voted for the legislation after getting a “polar payoff” to ensure that her state won’t be hit as hard as others by the massive Medicaid cuts.
After voting for the bill, Murkowski said that she didn't actually like the legislation and wanted the House to amend it—knowing full well that it was unlikely to happen. Hard to find a more cowardly move than that.
"I know that in many parts of the country, there are Americans that are not going to be advantaged by this bill,” she said.
But Murkowski’s colleague Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri gave her a run for her money on the coward scale. Hawley had been declaring for months that he wouldn't vote for any bill that would slash Medicaid.
“I’m not going to vote for Medicaid benefit cuts,” Hawley told reporters earlier this year.
Yet Hawley did just that—and without even needing a kickback like Murkowski’s in exchange for his vote.
Meanwhile, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin folded and voted for the bill after spending weeks declaring that its deficit busting was immoral and dangerous. Like Hawley, it took nothing for Johnson to prove that his commitment to reducing the deficit was all a ruse.
In the end, cutting taxes for the rich while screwing the poor is more important than anything for the GOP. And the caves were just as obscene over in the House.
There are far too many to list, but for the sake of brevity, here are the worst of the cowards in the House.
Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska—who isn’t even running for reelection and thus does not need to cave to Trump—voted for the bill after previously saying that the bill’s massive Medicaid cuts were a red line that he would not cross.
"No bill is going to be perfect,” Bacon told reporters to justify his abhorrent cave.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who just a few weeks ago said that the Senate’s deep cuts to Medicaid were a “nonstarter,” also voted for the bill, saying that he hopes the cuts to the life-saving health care program will be delayed down the road. Really.
Meanwhile, Rep. Keith Self of Oklahoma, who on Wednesday called the bill “morally and fiscally bankrupt,” turned around less than a day later and, you guessed it, voted for the legislation.
Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio—one of two Republicans to vote against the bill in the House the first time because it added too much to the deficit—voted for the Senate version of the bill that exploded the deficit even more, because he said that Trump made an artificial deadline and time had simply run out for him to fight for more changes.
Davidson told reporters that he put up “as strong of a fight” as he could and that he “hates to reward the Swamp” but couldn’t fight anymore. The true definition of a coward.
And Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, who declared that he couldn’t vote for the bill and that there was nothing anyone could say to get him to vote for it, turned around less than a day later and voted for it.
While that is certainly a cowardly act, at least he admitted why he caved so easily.
“Well, we met with President Trump, and he did a masterful job laying out how we could improve it, how he could use his chief executive office—use things to make the bill better,” Norman said.
There’s no greater evidence than that to prove that the GOP is nothing more than a cult dedicated to Trump.
Campaign ActionCartoon: Curb appeal
July 6th, 2025 06:55 pmdailykos_feedA cartoon by Clay Bennett.
Related | US approval plummets around the world thanks to Trump
The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Sunday, July 6th
July 6th, 2025 04:39 pmfatalfae posting in su_heraldSPIKE: (shakes his head) Listen, pet?
BUFFY: No, no, Finn is his last name. Yeah. Well, did he used to work there and then he got transferred? (Spike's chip goes off again, he thrashes on the stairs unnoticed by Buffy) Oh, is this actually a flower shop, or is this one of those things where I'm supposed to play along to show that I know it's really secret ops? Oh, maybe I shouldn't have said that. Oh, OK, right. Well, if some guy named Finn shows up to buy flowers— Yeah. Thanks. (hangs up, turns to Spike) Wrong number. Or a giant government conspiracy, one or the— (notices he's recovering from an episode) Spike?
~~The Killer in Me~~
[Drabbles & Short Fiction]
- The Redacted Romance by Viwiel (Crossover w/ CHAOS, Buffy, G)
- Falling for a fellow potential. by SidneyPrescottFan (BtVS Ensemble, G)
- see you be brave (hurt a little less) by Cynder2013 (Tara/Buffy, Spike, Oz, T)
- The One Thing You Can't Replace by Gohstface (Cordelia/Xander, Oz/Willow, BtVS Ensemble, T)
- Predictable Patterns by Gojirob (Angel, Xander, T)
- Bury Me Out Back by fictiongods (Buffy, Unrated)
[Chaptered Fiction]
- Xander Harris and the Incredibly Unhelpful Gamer System, Chapter 11 by aug_sky (Oz/Willow, BtVS Ensemble, M)
- Retirement Plan, Chapter 13 by gothicjedi666 (Crossover w/ Harry Potter, Teen Titans, Dawn, E)
- always gray, never simple, Chapter 6 by welcometocaritas (Lilah/Wesley, AtS Ensemble, M)
- A Vampire's Heart, Chapter 6 (Complete) by WRDS (Spike/You, BtVS Ensemble, M)
- Silent tides, Chapter 18 by Aya1600 (Buffy/OMC, G)
- Right Beside Her, Chapter 2 by Aviera (BtVS Ensemble, Angel, M)
- Shadow Over Hellmouth, Chapter 137 by Tuxedo_Mark (BtVS & AtS Ensembles, E)
- Board Game Blues Rerolled, Chapter 3 by mabus101 (Giles/Buffy, Tara, E)
- Bliss Took Hold, Chapter 41 by MysticD, nexiis6 (Xander/Spike, Angel/Riley/Buffy, E)
- Home For Strays, Chapter 6 by violettathepiratequeen (Spike/Buffy, BtVS Ensemble, T)
- A Vampire's Heart Pt. 6: Good Boy (Spike x reader) by itsalwaysteatimeinwonderland (Unrated, but mentions alcohol)
- A Purpose - Spike x Reader, Chapter 1 by hiddndaydreams (Spike x Reader, (She/Her) Unrated)
- In No Particular Order, Chapter 4 by JamesMFan (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)
- Refractions, Chapter 14 by CheekyKitten (Buffy/Spike, R)
- Better Off Together, Chapter 2 by satinsafe (Buffy/Spike, BtVS & AtS Ensembles, NC-17)
- Something to Believe In, Chapter 32 by Maxine Eden (Buffy/Spike, BtVS Ensemble, Angel, Fred, R)
- Thursday... what a concept, Chapter 9 by NotYourGrave (Buffy/Spike, R)
- The Plan, Chapter 25 by NotYourGrave (Buffy/Spike, BtVS Ensemble, NC-17)
- Sycamore, Chapter 1 by Orange Wombat (Buffy/Spike, Willow, Xander, Jonathan, G)
- Adventures of a Retired Slayer, Chapter 25 by EnchantedWillow (Buffy/Spike, Ensemble, R)
- Hearts a Mess, Chapter 16 by splendidchapette (Buffy/Spike, Ensemble, NC-17)
- The Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Spuffy, vol. 1, Chapter 4 by VoronaFiernan (Buffy/Spike, Angel, Anya, Joyce, R)
- Hearts a Mess, Chapter 16 by splendidchapette (Buffy/Spike, Ensemble, NC-17)
- Out of Dodge, Chapter 8 by VeroNyxK84 (Buffy/Spike, BtVS Ensemble, PG-13)
- Train to Nowhere, Chapter 2 by violettathepiratequeen (Buffy/Spike, BtVS Ensemble, PG-13)
[Images, Audio & Video]
- Artwork: Muse-eum, Chapter 12 by ChaosNina, HappyWhenItRains (ChaosNina) (Spike/Buffy, T)
- Artwork: Highlands and Tropical Islands-Day at the Beach by Deviantelfguy (Faith/Buffy, G)
- Fanvid: Buffy & Spike | i kissed a boy (btvs) by livingdeathbat
- Artwork: ANTI-SHIFTERS DNI by secretshifter-desperate (Spuffy, SFW)
- Artwork: Just a girl in the world 💕by ellie-mars (Glory, SFW)
- Artwork: just a buffy doodle by inkgioo (SFW)
- Artwork: Happy Birthday Adam! by garscrucible (Warren, SFW)
- Moodboard: moodboard: buffy x faith by courtillyy (SFW)
- Artwork: happy late birthday to one of my favorite characters ever!! by mirhylor (Anya, SFW)
- Image: SMG from Southland Tales by asztec (SFW)
- Image: Faith - Buffy the Vampire Slayer by babylon38ad (SFW)
- Artwork: Muse-eum, Chapter 12 (Art) by HappyWhenItRains (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)
- Collection: My Angel book collection so far🖤by versacemischief (SFW)
[Reviews & Recaps]
[Recs & In Search Of]
- ISO Answers: Empty places. by Snake35144
- ISO Author: The Books and Comics Spreadsheet by YellowRoses82
[Fandom Discussions]
- I'm now going to engage in Discourse about vampires and souls. by coraniaid
- So, I had this idea for a Buffy season 7 AU by confusedguytoo
- the thing about Spike is he flat out rejects the angst of vampirism and fully embraces the hedonistic creature aesthetic of it, by femmedefandom
- I love how much of a dork Spike is when he’s let in to Buffy’s house by femmedefandom
- Headcanon about the soul by angrysandwichphantom
- btvs 7x05 "selfless" is drew goddard's first episode of the show and it has a lot of weird self-referential moments by lesbianmarrow
- That’s the difference between Angel and Spike. by lillitth
- okay i get the whole faith and angel parallel and why he basically sponsors her on her path to redemption. by prophecygirly
- Buffy alum on House by TricketyTreet
- Why did the writers change Giles' character completely in season 6 and 7? by Smooth_Switch9058
- My Mecca by Swamp_thing42
- faith made the choice to be evil-- and none of the main characters failed her. by daisie_darlin
- We saw in the OE that they gave homage to classics such as Dracula, Jeckyl and Hyde, etc. What would you like to see the reboot give a nod to? by TerribleBid8416
- SMG says reboot will be lighter in tone than the last seasons of buffy and I'm disappointed/worried that it may land flat with that approach by OkVacation4725
- 🐇 From Demon to Bunny: Anya’s Fear and the Feminine Trap – A Feminist Theoretical Reading by postmodern_posthuman
- What’s a small thing that ruined a character for you? by Taras_Willowverse
- Didn’t buffy kill this guy in “conversations with dead people”? by Professional-Food773
- Why is the new Buffy series listed under JW's UPCOMING section? by JewelerDear9233
- I don’t hate Kennedy by Professional-Food773
- Happy Birthday to Adam Busch! by Honey_Banana1
- What songs would the Buffy The Vampire Slayer characters choose to sing at Caritas from Angel? by Big-Restaurant-2766
- Could Lurconis be an Old One that managed to stay on earth? by ManannanMacLir74
- You Think Doyle Would Have Filled Skip's Role If Glenn Quinn Hadn't Passed Away? by Doc-11th
- Wonder What Was Wesley's Cover Story For Being At The School by Doc-11th
- Are there any books or comics that go into what how Dawn was integrated into the past seasons? by Soft_Interaction_437
- The Shanshu Prophecy by fiercequality
- Loved Buffy, quit angel during season 1 by JenYo-
- Finished S4 yayyy by Tuna_96
Trained volunteers patrol LA streets as ICE raids intensify
July 6th, 2025 05:00 pmdailykos_feedNeighborhood groups monitor immigration enforcement amid rising fear and federal scrutiny.
By Myriam-Fernanda Alcala Delgado for Capital & Main
The day after families across the country gathered to celebrate Father’s Day, Francisco Romero huddled at dawn with 10 volunteers in a South Los Angeles parking lot. The group was preparing to patrol the neighborhood for signs of Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity.
There was a heaviness in the atmosphere, despite the comradery and smiles. During the group huddle, some reflected on the difficulty celebrating Father’s Day while families across the city were being separated by ICE. Another volunteer mentioned viral videos from the prior weekend showing apparent ICE presence in the nearby city of Bell, including “snatch and grabs,” in which unmarked vehicles surrounded pedestrians suspected of being undocumented and ICE officers pulled them inside.
“It’s psychological,” Romero said, speculating about the timing of the raids, which coincided with a holiday meant to celebrate family.
Related | Noem wants to hunt down people who warn others about nearby ICE agents
While L.A. residents — and much of the country — were transfixed for days by images of masked officers rounding up immigrants and protesters flooding downtown streets, this quieter, grassroots effort to protect vulnerable communities from these raids has continued to unfold. Volunteers like Romero patrol the streets across Los Angeles weekly, keeping watch with the aim of alerting the community to any ICE operations.
Such patrols are nothing new. Since the civil unrest that erupted after the beating of Rodney King in 1992, Unión del Barrio has operated community patrol networks to monitor for law enforcement activity and other potential dangers to residents in neighborhoods across California. But the environment has become more treacherous in recent weeks. There has been an increase in ICE operations across the city, including masked officers detaining suspected undocumented immigrants from local stores, street shops and neighborhoods. Their enforcement actions have led to protests in Los Angeles and pushback from residents and organizers alike.
In addition, Unión del Barrio — along with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles and the Party for Socialism and Liberation — has drawn the attention of Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, who alleged in a letter sent to the groups in mid-June that they are providing “logistical and financial resources” in support of civil unrest and “aiding and abetting criminal conduct.” The letter calls on the groups to “cease and desist” their operations.
In response, Unión del Barrio said in a June 15 statement, “The objective of Mr. Hawley’s letter was to intimidate us and compel Unión del Barrio to stop organizing the self-defense of our communities.”
Many volunteers, including Aimee and Ruth, never interact directly with ICE, while those who do, like Romero, follow a strict protocol meant to protect them from arrest while they carry out their work. When Romero spots what he believes might be an ICE vehicle, he first calls for backup from fellow organizers before deciding whether to approach. In the past, he would tap on the car window and ask the officer to identify themselves.
“That was back when they would still roll down their windows. Now, they don’t,” he said.
The atmosphere of heightened fear has caused the members of the group to use extra caution when describing their work and when approaching ICE agents. When speaking among themselves or with the broader community, they avoid language that suggests they are “chasing out” or “following” ICE operations. Instead, they describe their efforts as “safely monitoring” ICE activity from a distance. When agents leave a neighborhood, organizers say the agents are “electing to do so,” often because they have lost the element of surprise, according to Romero.
The group has also gone to extra lengths to make sure community members are comfortable with their presence when they are on patrol. Each member of Unión del Barrio’s patrol wears a green shirt emblazoned with the group’s logo, so they are clearly recognizable. The volunteers are given magnets with the organization’s name to affix to the side of their cars. They travel in small groups. On this Monday in June, Francisco, Ruth and Aimee were assigned to patrol the residential neighborhoods north of Martin Luther King Boulevard. Aimee, who lives in the community, said she preferred to use only her first name for the safety of her friends and family; Ruth, a teacher, likewise asked that only her first name be used.
Aimee, who has volunteered with Unión del Barrio for the past six months, was looking through the back seat window when she noticed a car with blacked out plates. Romero decided the car was suspicious enough to merit an investigation to see whether it belonged to ICE officers.
The spotting of any car that is unmarked, has tinted windows or is deemed in any way out of the ordinary is enough to prompt the patrol team to turn back and retrace their steps.
That particular car turned out not to be a threat. But just two hours after Romero, Aimee and Ruth’s patrol had finished for the morning, Unión del Barrio posted a warning on social media about ICE presence less than a mile away.
Unión del Barrio conducts two types of patrols: morning rides that monitor neighborhoods with large numbers of Latino residents or workers who may be targeted for immigration enforcement and patrols triggered by community tips about real-time ICE activity. The latter have become more frequent in recent weeks, as ICE operations have intensified. In both cases, the organization either verifies the activity directly or coordinates with trusted community members or other civil rights organizations before issuing public alerts on social media.
Despite heightened scrutiny of immigrant rights organizations in recent weeks by federal officials, a growing number of community groups and individuals are seeking them out for guidance. Unión del Barrio has received calls from across the state and country from individuals and groups requesting resources on preparing communities for incursion by ICE. The organization is planning a trip across California to provide training to allied community groups over the course of the summer. Romero estimates interest in those trainings has tripled in the last few weeks. Instead of taking Sen. Hawley’s allegations as a deterrent, “We see it as a new front of struggle,” said Romero, who has been with Unión del Barrio for 30 years and got his start as an activist against police violence.
Related | Here’s what’s happening to the people ICE arrests in immigration court
But, according to Romero, ICE officers are altering their tactics to evade detection by community patrols. ICE used to commonly conduct operations in the morning but has now shifted its efforts to later in the day, when most patrol volunteers are working.
Another ICE innovation is the use of decoys — in which a suspected ICE vehicle leads patrol cars one way while other ICE operations move elsewhere.
Capital & Main reached out to ICE officials for comment for this story but received no response.
* * *
With about 15 minutes left of the patrol, Romero headed towards Santee Alley just as businesses start to open. Ruth, who was riding shotgun, explained how Unión del Barrio has done more than patrol the community. They have been offering training to community members for months, including on how to prepare a plan in case one of them is detained by ICE. “So we know how to respond when ICE inevitably attacks us again,” she said.
Related | Now DHS is lying about scary immigrants with weed whackers
Ruth also shared her motivation for volunteering: She sees how ICE’s increased presence in the community over the last few weeks has impacted her students, whom she calls “her kids.” They are why she continues to patrol.
Meanwhile, Romero was making a point that morning of staying within the speed limit and obeying traffic laws at every stop or turn. Sometimes, he said, he has the urge to “book it” to respond to an alert that ICE has been spotted. But he knows, now more than ever, that “any excuse to engage with us is an opportunity for them to break us.”
Campaign Action[ SECRET POST #6757 ]
July 6th, 2025 02:09 pmcase posting in fandomsecrets⌈ Secret Post #6757 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.
( More! )
Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 30 secrets from Secret Submission Post #965.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
Daily Kos is moving to WordPress
July 6th, 2025 03:00 pmdailykos_feedFor most of its existence, Daily Kos has run on custom-built publishing platforms. That might’ve made sense a decade or two ago, but now it’s expensive, outdated, and difficult to maintain. Every small change or upgrade requires complex engineering work, even as the existing system demands constant upkeep. Just maintaining security patches has been a difficult process. New features have often been promised but rarely delivered. That’s on me—and yeah, it’s embarrassing.
But starting now, everything changes.
We’re officially migrating Daily Kos to WordPress—the world’s most popular and powerful open-source publishing platform, which powers major media outlets like The Nation, Time, Vogue, Variety, New York Post, Rolling Stone, Vox, Wired, and many more.
Our current system has served us well, but it’s old, brittle, and costly. By moving to WordPress, we’ll unlock access to a vast ecosystem of tools, faster updates, and modern features. That means better usability, more time spent building what you actually want, and less time patching legacy code from as far back as 2004.
I’ll have more to say about the migration in the weeks and months ahead, but this is truly game-changing. We’ll be able to tap into a huge library of community-enhancing plugins. Want account badges? There’s a plugin for that—no more months and months of custom dev work. Some of you would really like this plugin. We’ll have lots of options to choose from, depending on what we want to implement.
We can even build an app without spinning up a separate, expensive team.
All of this means a system that’s vastly easier to maintain and update. No more vague promises. No more spinning our wheels.
We’ve partnered with an experienced outside vendor to build and launch the new Daily Kos. The initial scope is a straight port of the existing site, with a refreshed homepage layout. No bells or whistles—yet. But once we’re live, and with enough community support, we’ll be able to add all sorts of great new features quickly and affordably by leveraging the plugin library.
While the timeline might shift depending on what we uncover during development, the vendor is confident we can launch early next year.
You help shape what comes next.
This isn’t just a migration. It’s an opportunity to rethink what Daily Kos can be—while staying true to our community roots.
That’s why we are forming a new Community Advisory Group, which will work directly with the product and leadership teams to help initially guide:
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The features we prioritize for launch.
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The legacy tools we keep, cut, or evolve.
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What innovations we build next.
I’ve written before about how the economics of media have transformed—in a good way. In the past, when email list-building and advertising made up two-thirds of our revenue, you were the product. Our customers were campaigns, agencies, and media buyers.
Today, reader support and donations account for 80–90% of our revenue. That changes everything. Now we are the product, and you are the customer. That means we have to be fully responsive to your needs and priorities.
So we’re not just switching platforms—we’re empowering the community to help shape the future of Daily Kos.
We’re already inviting key community members—those who’ve demonstrated leadership in organizing and building this space—to join the advisory group. I’m genuinely thrilled to work with this new batch of pioneers. Like, so excited.
Honestly, one of the most frustrating things about our current situation with the Justice Department is that I’d planned to spend this summer talking and scheming with you all about the next evolution of Daily Kos—and fundraising to make it happen. I hate to have to ask you again for support.
But that’s part of the new revenue reality: You guys fund Daily Kos, and we also need your support to fund this migration. But it’s going to be so worth it. It’ll mean we can finally start delivering on the community’s long-standing wishlist—a wishlist you can define.
This is the future we’ve been working toward: more flexibility, more innovation, and, most importantly, more collaboration with you, the community that’s kept this site alive and thriving for over two decades.
In July and August, we’ll work with the advisory board and staff to decide what features we’ll carry over—and what we can let go. The less we port, the cheaper and faster the project will be. But nothing is gone forever! Thanks to WordPress, we can rebuild later, easily and affordably.
And then? We’re off to the races—working with you to bring the tools and features we all want.
You can help fund the project here
Oh, I like this word!
July 8th, 2025 07:54 amconuly( Read more... )
Black Music Sunday: Remembering Della Reese
July 6th, 2025 01:00 pmdailykos_feedBlack Music Sunday is a weekly series highlighting all things Black music, with over 260 stories covering performers, genres, history, and more, each featuring its own vibrant soundtrack. I hope you’ll find some familiar tunes and perhaps an introduction to something new.
Over the years here on Black Music Sunday, I’ve featured many female jazz, blues, gospel, and R&B vocalists. I have been remiss in not covering an artist who excelled not only in music but also in film and television. On the anniversary of her birth, allow me to introduce Della Reese.
Delloreese Patricia Early was born on July 6, 1931, in Detroit. She would become known to the world as simply “Della Reese.”
Sandy J. Stiefer and Jeanne M. Lesinski wrote about how she got started in her biography for Musician Guide:
The youngest in a family of six children, she grew up in Detroit, Michigan, where the Baptist church and gospel singing greatly influenced her career. At age six, Deloreese Patricia Early was singing in the church's junior choir.
For the next seven years Deloreese continued her gospel singing in the church. By the time she was 13, the singer had developed such vocal power and talent that she caught the attention of the legendary Mahalia Jackson. Known as the "Queen of Gospel Music," Jackson recruited Deloreese for her Mahalia Jackson Troupe gospel singers. "This opportunity to sing with the world's foremost gospel singer was a thrilling experience," Reese noted in a 1992 press release. "I will never forget the wonderful association which lasted for five consecutive summers, and the lasting things I learned from her ... how to communicate with people through song." The teenaged Reese toured with the gospel group from 1945 through 1949.
Although Reese studied psychology at Wayne State University in Detroit, singing remained very important to her. She formed a women's gospel group called the Meditation Singers during her first year at Wayne State. By the end of that year, Reese's mother had died and her father had become ill. Reese ended her college education to help support her family, working variously as a receptionist and switchboard operator, barber, taxicab driver, and even as a truck driver.
Her early gospel singing:
Reese gives a humorous account of her stint as a truck driver in an interview with The Visionary Project:
During this time Reese continued to perform with the Meditation Singers. She also had the occasional opportunity to perform with the Clara Ward Singers, the Roberta Martin Singers, and Beatrice Brown's Inspirational Singers. Reese did not consider singing as a career, however. In a December 1957 interview with Don Nelsen for the New York Sunday News, she said, "I was interested in singing, but I thouht of it as something to do when you didn't have anything else to do."
Since gospel singers made very little money, Reese thought a career in business would be the best way for her to earn a living. Nevertheless, she toyed with the idea of making music her profession. She knew that making a career as a singer would mean performing popular music in nightclubs; this caused her some distress, since the extravagance and excesses she associated with club life clashed with her religious beliefs. Yet when the Reverend E. A. Rundless of Detroit's New Liberty Baptist Church encouraged Reese to pursue a singing career, she put her reservations aside. A short time after Reese became a hostess-singer at a local bowling alley/nightclub, she won a contest in which newspaper readers voted for their favorite local singer. The prize was a week-long engagement at Detroit's famous Flame Showbar.
The History Makers continue her story:
Her big break came when she won a contest that gave her a week singing at Detroit’s famed “Flame Show Bar.” That week soon became eight weeks. This experience and others exposed Reese to the talents and styles of such music greats as Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday, Al Hibbler, Billy Eckstine and others.
In 1953, Reese moved to New York City and became a vocalist with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra, and shortly thereafter, signed a recording contract with Jubilee Records. Reese had her first major hit with “And That Reminds Me (of you).” That same year, she was voted “The Most Promising Singer” by Billboard, Cashbox, and Variety, as well as the Disc Jockeys of America and the Jukebox Operators Association.
Reese signed a new recording contract in 1959, with RCA, and subsequently enjoyed her biggest hit, a tune adapted from Puccini’s La Boheme, entitled “Don’t You Know”. Acknowledgement from the music industry followed as she was nominated for a Grammy Award as best female vocalist. This led to Reese performing for the next nine years in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the thirty years that followed “Don’t You Know,” Reese has continued recording.
In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, Reese launched a successful television career. She appeared on many television shows that are now considered classics, including The Perry Como Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, as well as more than twenty appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. Her success continued over the years, with numerous appearances on television and in movies. In 1994, Reese was tapped to star in the hit series Touched by an Angel. Reese was honored for her talents in 1994 with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In addition to her singing and acting, Reese led a deeply spiritual life. In 1986, she was ordained as a minister by the Rev. Dr. Johnnie Colemon, and she gave weekly sermons at her church, Understanding Principles For Better Living, in Los Angeles.
The HistoryMakers presented this absorbing hourlong interview/documentary with Reese, hosted by Lorraine Toussaint. Reese has an amazing sense of humor—give it a watch:
In 1957, Reese would record her first hit, “And That Reminds Me”:
Then, in 1959, she’d have her biggest hit, “Don’t You Know.”
The Michigan Rock and Roll Hall of Fame notes:
In 1959, Reese signed with RCA Records and released her first RCA single, called "Don’t You Know?", which was adapted from Giacomo Puccini's music for La boheme, specifically the aria “Quando m’en vo” (Musetta's Waltz).
“Don’t You Know?” became her biggest hit, reaching the # 2 spot on the Billboard Pop chart and topping the R&B chart that year. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc
“Don’t You Know”
Reese recorded a jazz/funk/soul album “Black is Beautiful” in 1970.
[Verse 1]
If you had a choice of colors
Which one would you be, my brothers
If there was no day or night
Which would you prefer to be right
How long have you hated your white teachers
Who told you to love only your Black preachers
Do you respect your brother's woman friend
And share with Black folk that are not of kin
[Refrain]
People must prove it to the people
A better day is coming for you and for me
With just a little more education
A little love for our nation
We can do it, we can make a better sociеty
[Verse 2]
Now some of us would rather cuss and make a big fuss
Than to do somеthing to bring about a little trust
Lord knows I hope we overcome our beliefs someday
It might help a little bit if you'll listen to what I have to say
And I will not have you hating your white teachers
Please don't only love your Black preachers
And learn that you can respect your brother's woman friend
And you got to share with Black folks other than those that are your kin
Reese sang blues as well as jazz and gospel. These two albums are a great example:
Journalist Donald Travis Stewart, known as Trav S.D., wrote about Reese the actor on his “Travalanche” blog: “A Different Della Reese.”
Towards the late ’60s Reese began to get her feet wet in acting on shows like Mod Squad and McCloud. I first became aware of her in the mid ’70s, when she was a regular on Chico and the Man, made an appearance on Sanford and Son, and was frequently on shows like Merv, Mike Douglas, and Dinah. She had a recurring role on the sit-com It Takes Two (1982-83) with Richard Crenna and Patty Duke, and a regular on The Royal Family (1991-92) opposite Redd Foxx. The Royal Family was exec produced by Eddie Murphy, who had worked with Reese and Foxx on the movie Harlem Nights (1989). Sadly Foxx died in the middle of the first season, meaning the end of the promising series. She also guested on shows like 227, Picket Fences, etc. and starred in several other made-for-tv and theatrical films (often ones similar in theme to Touched By An Angel).
So by the time of Touched by an Angel, she was a beloved American institution and seeing her playing a mentor to an angel is very much analogous to Morgan Freeman’s several appearances as God, or the President, or whatever. Some might argue that Tess is a bit of a “Magical Negro” character, closer in spirit in some ways to the 1930s and ’50s than to the 2020s. It’s almost an Ethel Waters thing. A kindly, saintly spirit, gently nudging poor, erring mortals into more Godly directions by virtue of a pure, uncomplicated heart. There are worse things, no doubt, but there are also more progressive ones. Thus we remind you that, a quarter century prior to her best known show, Della Reese was already on her way to making history, and that’s what we like to celebrate.
In case you never saw Reese in “Harlem Nights”—she certainly doesn’t portray a character (a brothel Madam) in line with her real-life occupation as a reverend.
When Reese joined the ancestors, on Nov. 19, 2017, every major news organization reported her passing. The obituaries are too numerous to post here today, a quick Google search will lead you to them.
I hope you will join me in the comments section below for more of her music, and those of you who are fans, please post your favorites.
Campaign ActionCartoon: Why drain it when you can use it to terrorize immigrants?
July 6th, 2025 12:30 pmdailykos_feedA cartoon by Pedro Molina.
Related | Stephen Miller whines to Fox News over criticism of twisted migrant camp
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Welcome back to nondenomifan!
July 6th, 2025 04:49 pmthenewbuzwuzz posting in su_heraldnondenomifan has rejoined us, this time as a floating backup editor, and will start by generously making two posts later this month to help arrange some time off for one of the regular editors.Season 8 Slashed - Stargate SG-1 icons
July 6th, 2025 10:53 pmmagnavox_23 posting in icons
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Season 8 Slashed - Stargate SG-1 icons
July 6th, 2025 10:45 pmmagnavox_23 posting in fandom_icons Check out the rest here. <3
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PS…
July 6th, 2025 12:09 ampost_secret_feed
Dear Frank-
My wife found my PostSecret that you put up this Sunday and I was a little scared. She cried and told me it was the sweetest thing she has ever been a part of.
I sent it before we got married.
The young woman I speak of on the cards and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary last October and have an amazing 4-year-old that completes our beautiful family.
PS. . . I’m no longer scared that she knows all my secrets.
The post PS… appeared first on PostSecret.
balance
July 5th, 2025 06:41 pmchazzbannerThe funniest this is that Timothée Chalamet was cast as Estel (young Aragorn) for the framing scenes. He was cast when he was 21! (Yes, this project has been discussed - and scripts written - for at least ten years.)
For pure excitement you can't beat pulling the boxes out from under one of my beds, dusting them, and putting them back. Most of these were boxes of photographs. (Vacation photos? Probably.)
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How the hell did we get here?
July 5th, 2025 11:00 pmdailykos_feedExplaining the Right is a weekly series that looks at what the right wing is currently obsessing over, how it influences politics—and why you need to know.
It’s been a tumultuous 6 months with Donald Trump inhabiting the presidency, with a weakened federal government now incapable of addressing monumental problems like climate change, pandemics, education, basic security and safety, and even forecasting the weather.
As the United States reaches its 249th year of existence, it’s in a very precarious position. So how did we get here?
Elon Musk’s propaganda machine
The 2024 election made it clear why Elon Musk leveraged billions of dollars to purchase Twitter, which he has since rebranded as X. The wealthiest man in the world turned the site into a propaganda machine, amplifying conspiracy theories and bigotry.
When he threw his support behind Trump, the site went all in on amplifying his campaign while escalating lies and falsehoods about Democrats, particularly President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
After Trump won the election, liberals and progressives mounted a mass exodus to Bluesky. Conservatives responded with anger—because they vitally need to troll liberals, which they prefer over speaking with each other.
Attack on diversity
Trump is a racist and the biggest promoter of the “birther” conspiracy theory about President Barack Obama. In his first term, he praised Nazis as “very fine people.” And now in his second term, there’s just more of the same.
But instead of merely throwing around rhetoric where “woke” is a substitute for the N-word, Trump is using his power to roll back the very notion of diversity. He’s used executive action and internal government policy to purge diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and has even taken to simply erasing the achievement of Black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ people.
At the same time, he’s fulfilled—in part, at least—his campaign pledges to the most virulent racists by affirming his support for the pro-slavery Confederacy. Trump and his lieutenants like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are relitigating the Civil War and coming down firmly on the side that viewed Black people as property.
Musk’s government sledgehammer
By empowering Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency to infiltrate multiple government agencies, Trump advanced the longstanding right-wing mission to undermine effective government. Musk and his team of destructive operatives—like “Big Balls”—have tried to take down government agencies that millions of people rely on.
There has been significant resistance and a string of courtroom losses for Trump. But thanks to DOGE, the government’s ability to do things like send out Social Security payments and monitor hurricanes has been compromised.
Trust in the government was already in trouble, but Trump and Musk made it worse—all in the name of “small” government, even if that means that people have to die.
Scared men and predators
At the Pentagon, former Fox News host Hegseth continues to be the living embodiment of the toxic masculinity that he represented on the right-wing network. The only problem is that it’s manifested in the mismanagement of the most powerful military in recorded history.
With Trump’s blessing, Hegseth pounds the table on so-called “warrior” ethos while gossiping on group chats about missile strikes and making a mess of international diplomacy.
Simultaneously, the Trump administration has continued its outreach to the toxic right-wing manosphere by reportedly advocating for the release of influencer Andrew Tate, a misogynist who has been accused of rape in multiple countries. In other words, he’s the perfect hero for the Trump administration.
Never stop pushing conspiracies
Trump is a conspiracy theorist. For decades, he’s offered up half-baked, debunked theories on a litany of topics—like when he said that climate change was a Chinese “hoax”. Even though he and the GOP are in charge, the Trump team still insists that the “deep state” is out to get them.
The conspiracies are even worse this time around because they’re being fueled by Musk. He and Trump bandied about the notion that gold at Fort Knox had been stolen, even though Trump’s last Treasury secretary did a weird photo shoot there just a few years ago.
There is no such thing as “white genocide,” but Trump spent days harping on it, throwing a rhetorical bone to white supremacists who have pushed the conspiracy.
They love abusing and bombing people
Conservatism has a long-standing love affair with abusive behavior. The line goes back to figures like President George W. Bush, who promoted torture as U.S. policy with the euphemism “enhanced interrogation” at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Now Trump has brought it back to the forefront by abducting and detaining immigrants, crowing about detention camps, and having his subordinates like Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stage photo shoots in front of packed jail cells.
The Republican tradition of gleefully bombing people has resurfaced with Trump’s decision to inject the nation into the conflict between Iran and Israel. Like Bush, Trump is now complaining about the media accurately covering his questionable declarations of success in his bombings.
Killing the economy
Trump inherited an economy from Biden that was on the mend, following years of Trump’s mismanagement during COVID-19. Instead of just taking credit for it, like he did with Obama’s economic recovery in 2017, Trump has gone on the attack.
He unilaterally imposed tariffs that have already contributed to a fiscal slowdown and sticker shock. Businesses have had their hiring impacted while countries around the world are anticipating the shockwaves of an economic slowdown.
The last few Republican presidents—Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bush, and Trump—have all presided over economic pullbacks that were cleaned up by Democratic presidents.
Trump and his team, who spent years complaining about prices under Biden, have now said that cost increases are good for the economy, lest they offend Trump.
War on immigrants
Trump hates immigrants. He launched his initial bid for the presidency based on bald-faced lies about Mexican immigrants being rapists and has pursued a policy of cruelty ever since. In his first term, he separated immigrant families. Now, he’s abducting immigrants and even forcing military occupation on American cities.
The desire to demonize immigrants or people sympathetic to immigration—a tradition that has been forever intertwined with U.S. history—is evident in all of Trump’s actions.
But now that the public has seen that Trump and the GOP overstated the threat of “immigrant criminals,” he’s losing ground on what past polls found were his strongest issues.
The United States is in a bad place, but that didn’t happen overnight. The right plotted and planned for the Trump-powered onslaught, even though he pretended that he was not connected to initiatives like Project 2025.
If the country recovers, it will take a very long time. Trump has an entire system behind him, from the Republican Party to propaganda machines like X and Fox News.
They can be defeated, but the fight will have to be sustained.
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